[jyl]

It's the price. Who is going to buy a $1300 MBP for a high school freshman or middle schooler?

iPad Pro is absolutely not a replacement for a Mac. Not yet. MacOS apps and iOS apps are too different. The form factor and input methods and file system are too different. Especially in K-12: if the teacher and the other kids use Macs and PCs, sending your kid to school with a tablet is dumb.

The 11" MacBook Air is (was) the perfect first laptop for a kid. Inexpensive, small, light, fits in a book bag, battery lasts all day.

I guess where I'm coming from is: doesn't Apple want kids to have an entry into the Mac world that costs less than $1K?. Does Apple want every kid's first laptop to be a PC?

If I were Apple, I would have dropped the 13" MacBook Air and refreshed the 11" MacBook Air. Constrain the specs to keep the 11" MBA an inexpensive lower-end machine, so it doesn't conflict with the "executive road warrior" 12" MacBook. Although, to be honest, the MacBook seems superfluous now that the 13" MBP is as thin and light as it is.