While competitors face increasing component coats and shrinking demand, Apple’s spring 2026 collection seemingly strikes a far more optimistic note. Apple is broadening its market, while others contract, and right now appears focused on delivering faster, better products at mid-range prices.

The company is on the cusp of introducing new Macs, tablets, and smartphones aimed directly at the market segment its competitors dominate, capitalizing on their woes by applying additional pricing pressure. All these devices will run all the artificial intelligence you want them to run, while remaining resolutely the systems that already lead in any user satisfaction survey you want to name. 

What’s coming?

Most of what Apple has planned has already been discussed; those plans include the first iteration of much improved Siri and Apple Intelligence services, supported by the tactical partnership with Google Gemini. And also:

• The iPhone 17e: Replacing the iPhone 16e, the $599 smartphone will carry an A19 chip along with Apple’s own networking and 5G chips. It will boast the same 6.1-in. display and 48 megapixel camera as the current model and will have MagSafe support. Given the positive reception to the base iPhone 17, the budget-friendly model should be popular as it delivers a lot of phone for the price. It’s expected to appear later this month.
• A new entry-level iPad equipped with the A18 chip — and an M4-powered iPad Air. This brings AI to the entry-level model for the first time; both will be available as an optional 5G-capable device thanks to Apple’s own 5G chip. 
• Pro Macs: Apple isn’t just about the mid-range; it’s about to apply pressure at the high-end, too, with new MacBook Pro models equipped with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. These are expected to instantly bump Apple’s existing M5 MacBook to third place in the processor performance charts, which Apple now dominates in this price range. 

And another thing

What do you do when you sell the best PCs for most people’s needs? You work toward making those solutions available to even more people, and Apple has a plan to do just that coming down the pipe with its low-cost A-series MacBook model. 

Scheduled for later this year, the latter will deliver so much value for its price that it will put even more pressure on competitors in the mid-range. It will effectively be the ultimate mass-market AI PC — even as big competitors such as Dell quietly withdraw from promoting their products on the back of that emerging market.

Apple is also future proof, because as well as running its own AI solutions, its hardware can also support third-party services, including running AI services on device.

What happens next?

Apple is extending its reach across a much broader market than ever before. It’s doing so through a highly focused strategy of vertical integration, expanding its space across the supply chain through a pricing push enabled by its strategic investments in proprietary component manufacturing innovation.

The company’s decision to focus on making its own high-value processors and other silicon chips inside its hardware has enabled it to scale down costs, letting it reach for mid-priced markets while still offering products worthy of its name. So, while competitors must feed an array of high-value component suppliers (as well as themselves), Apple feeds a smaller number of mouths, replacing some of the most valuable pieces with its own proprietary designs now made on its behalf by contract manufacturers. 

This focus gives Apple far more business flexibility, particularly in current market conditions where component costs reach for the skies. Apple might have to pay more to its manufacturing partners, but other vendors must also pay more for those high-value chips.

Along with the popularity and reputation Apple has already built, its ability to broaden its market by tight control of manufacturing gives the company a brand-new economic advantage, something its looming mid-range product launches show the company is willing to exploit.

Whether through accident, design, or simple serendipity, the work Apple has been doing on silicon and supply chain management across the last 10 years means it now sits in the cat bird seat as the PC industry enters what seem to be “interesting times.” When it comes to the mid-range, Apple is ready to take a bite.

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