Apple’s move into the low-cost laptop market will accelerate enterprise adoption — and most IT teams aren’t ready for it.

Apple’s low-cost MacBook signals a new phase of enterprise adoption

Apple’s next major disruption may not be a headset or a new processor. It’s the potential arrival of a $600 MacBook – a move that could reshape enterprise architecture more than any new piece of hardware in recent memory.

As Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports, Apple is preparing to enter the low-cost laptop market for the first time with an ultra-affordable MacBook, powered by an iPhone processor and aimed at students, businesses, and web-based users.

For CIOs, this isn’t just a consumer headline. It’s a signal. If Apple moves into the low-cost market, it could accelerate a shift already underway: the adoption of Apple devices across every layer of the enterprise.

According to MacStadium’s 2025 CIO Survey, 9 in 10 CIOs report increased Apple adoption, and more than 20% now call macOS mission-critical to their IT strategy. That trend is already reshaping enterprise infrastructure.

And if Apple’s rumored price move is true, they are about to pour fuel on it.

Expect a Mac surge in 2026: How IT teams should prepare

Historically, macOS has lived in creative, development, and leadership circles where Apple’s premium price aligned with specialized needs. But a $600 MacBook changes that dynamic. Macs will start appearing in support desks, field teams, and other operational roles, forcing IT to manage Apple devices at a new scale and pace.

This accelerated adoption is likely to expose deep architectural gaps in how organizations manage, secure, and scale macOS at enterprise levels.

Mac deployment challenges for enterprise IT teams

Affordable Macs will bring choice to the forefront. Entire departments that never had access to Apple hardware will start asking for it. That’s good for user experience, but it adds operational pressure when most IT teams still manage Macs as exceptions rather than first-class citizens.

Shadow IT and the rise of unmanaged Macs

As Macs get cheaper, they also get easier to buy … outside IT’s procurement cycle. That creates a shadow IT problem at a new scale. Traditional MDMs can’t fully address it; what’s needed is orchestration and observability across both physical and cloud-based Macs to retain visibility and control.

The true cost of scaling Apple infrastructure in the enterprise

While 45% of CIOs view Apple infrastructure as strategic, nearly one-quarter still struggle to justify cost at scale. A less expensive Mac changes the acquisition math but not the lifecycle math. Even at $600, every new endpoint adds operational overhead. Patching, monitoring, compliance, and refresh cycles still scale linearly. Without automation, you’re trading hardware cost for management complexity.

MacOps is here: How CIOs can architect for Apple at enterprise scale

Apple’s entry into the low-cost market will accelerate Mac adoption faster than most enterprise IT teams are prepared for. The challenge isn’t managing more Macs — it’s modernizing the operational model around them.

This is where we’ll see the rise of MacOps: infrastructure that blends automation, orchestration, and visibility across the Apple ecosystem. The question isn’t whether Apple belongs in your enterprise anymore. It’s whether your enterprise is architected to handle Apple at scale.