I've never understood why "I can't see a use for this in my own life" is relevant to whether there is a market for something.

If they release it, I guarantee someone will have thought long and hard over the profitability, there will have been exhaustive market projections, they may even have a long-term strategy with products no-one even knows about yet that dovetails in.

Apple play the long game, they don't release things on a whim.

Ahem the emoji bar? The removal of USB and HDMI ports? It’s just 2 mistakes, but they still came back on both of them.

> Ahem the emoji bar?

I like Touch Bar.

Macbooks sell quite well despite the implementation details you mention.

And don't confuse "grumblings on tech forums" with a "strategy failure". People on forums can bemoan the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack all they want; the success of a business strategy is measured in dollars:

https://d1-invdn-com.investing.com/content/127a7c89dbe82ad5c...

https://www.statista.com/statistics/263402/apples-iphone-rev...

>Garageband?

Yes, that is exactly why I need one. I'm not joking when I say that is the only reason.

Other applications that run on Windows or Linux have been very confusing to me in comparison. Garageband always felt intuitive.

Would these even be targeted at your use case? Aren't the majority of Chromebook sales institutional in nature?

My brother is a public high school teacher, so I'm somewhat familiar. They're to schools, where the objective is to have something that's cheap, easy to administer, and locked down. They also tie into Google Classroom/GSuite and have limited local storage. Many Chromebooks aren't given to a specific student, but rolled out in carts and handed out during a "computer lab" time.

While a Mac would work, a cart full of Macs is radically more expensive than a cart full of Chromebooks. A family friend is a music teacher that uses Logic, so maybe that's a use case, or iOS development.

Well, I think it all depends on why someone is buying a Chromebook.

Is it because they want a cheap clamshell with a keyboard? (Tablets adjust poorly to this use case.)

Is it because they want a cheap general-purpose computer?

I've seen enough non-institutional users of Chromebooks to see that there is a market for them. (I had one of the original demo units and really liked it.) I can see why Apple would want to get a piece of that market.

Did you know that it has a three-year lifespan mandated by Google, and after that it will not receive upgrades?

That's incorrect. All current and recent-ish Chromebooks get at least eight years from date of release. And with the move to separate Chrome (the browser) from the OS, it will be possible to update the browser even after system upgrades are finished.

Google uses the term AUE (automatic update expiration) for the end of service. They provide a list of AUE dates here:

https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366?hl=en#zip...

It's 8 years and even then you'll still be be able to enable updates for Google chrome

The model I have has an auto-update expiration in 2030, but that is a common criticism that they don't surface the AUE date when you're buying one. I checked here before purchasing: https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6220366?hl=en

As part of the Lacros update Google is making, the OS can be updated separately from the browser so they'll continue to receive browser updates even after AUE.

Hopefully not, because that's incorrect. AUE dates for AFAIK all currently sold Chromebooks are 8 years from release.