Apple's MacBook is one of the best laptops you can buy. Now, Cupertino seems to have its ear to the ground, and plans for a lower-priced laptop are underway.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo added fuel to the recent fire of a DigiTimes report that the company plans to compete with more affordable laptops, like Google's Chromebooks - which we'll see at Apple's ' Scary Fast' event to offer an inexpensive MacBook in 2024 to flesh out the laptop lineup we expect to see at the event.

The Apple family currently includes the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air and the 13-, 14-, and 16-inch MacBook Pro. Could this inexpensive addition to Apple's laptop lineup be on the horizon? If I may be so bold as to speculate, driven by desire, I would love to see the 12-inch MacBook make a comeback.

The little workbook didn't have the best of starts back in the day; the $1,299 Intel Core M-based ultra-thin system never really set the world alight. But rumors of its reappearance have been circulating for years, and now that Apple's silicon covers the entire lineup, all the pieces of the Arm-based puzzle can be put together to make the M3 MacBook.

And it would have to be an M3. This is because Kuo cites "limited upgrades to M2 computing power" as the reason for the recent decline in MacBook sales. It is also said to be one of the driving forces behind a potential move to offer a lower-priced MacBook to reverse this decline.

This leaves one critical question: what price seems attractive enough for all who want to use a MacBook?

Apple has never been one to tout ultra-low prices, so we don't expect this laptop to be on par with a very cheap Chromebook. But let's look at the current pricing strategy that allows the M1 MacBook Air to be purchased for $999 (Apple's lowest priced option).

However, at big sale events like Black Friday, we regularly see the M1 Air on sale for $799.