Apple announced a slew of new Macs at WWDC 2023, including the 15-inch MacBook Air and a long-awaited update to the Mac Pro. However, the biggest announcement of the event flew under the radar, and it has to do with the older 13-inch MacBook Air.
With the introduction of the 15-inch model, Apple announced that it is dropping the price of the 13-inch M2 MacBook Air by $100, bringing it down to $1,100. It’s still not as cheap as the M1 MacBook Air, which comes in at $1,000, but it’s a lot closer.
There are a few reasons why this is such a big deal. For starters, Apple almost never cuts its prices on Macs. They rarely go on sale, and even more rarely do they see a price reduction. Just look at the M1 MacBook Air. It retails for the same $1,000 that Apple launched it for three years ago.
It appears that Apple is taking a similar approach as it does with its iPhones. In most cases, Apple will lower the price of the last generation of iPhones as it prepares to introduce new models, and that’s a bit of what’s happening with the MacBook Air M2. As the rumors suggest, Apple may also make way for an M3 MacBook Air to launch later this year, which will likely come in at that $1,200 price point.
The new price also makes the M2 MacBook Air much more impressive. It still runs hot, and it’s not as much of an upgrade over the M1 model as some hoped, but it feels less overpriced now than it did when the machine came out in the middle of last year.
Although the MacBook Air price cut was a big announcement without much fanfare, Apple introduced a slew of new Macs to its lineup. We also got our first glimpse of the M2 Ultra, which not only runs an updated Mac Studio, but also the long-awaited Mac Pro update.
There’s no doubt that the biggest announcement out of the event was Apple’s Vision Pro, which could be considered a Mac in its own right given that it’s powered by an M2 chip. For those not interested in jumping on the latest technology, especially when it’s as expensive as the Vision Pro, the price correction on the MacBook Air was a big highlight of WWDC this year.
Editor’s recommendations