Apple has pulled the 12-inch MacBook. The device is no longer shown on its website.
12-inch MacBook No Longer For Sale
A link to buy the device no longer appears on the front of the Apple website.
Furthermore, if you go to Apple’s tool that allows you to compare various products, it does not appear in the dropdown menu. (Interestingly, it does appear in the menu in the UK store, but not the U.S. I suspect that will change in the near future.)
Joanna Stern in the Wall Street Journal confirmed that the device is no more.
Goodbye forever, MacBook. Apple confirms the 12-inch MacBook has been laid to rest.
— Joanna Stern (@JoannaStern) 9 July 2019
Discontinuing the MacBook (for the 2nd time in less than a decade, no less) was a bit of a surprise move, but from a marketing standpoint I think it was the strategically correct thing to do.
Very little difference between the MacBook & MB Air on price and features after the Air was redesigned late last year, and definitely lended itself towards product line confusion. Now it’s effectively a binary choice: do you need a capable consumer laptop, or one for heavy duty content creation?
I’m sure there’s a market for a smaller form factor though, so I think there’s still room for Apple to possibly reintroduce an 11 or 12″ MacBook as an “Air Mini”, or something like that.