List price for the kinds of Intel chips Apple used/uses is somewhere along the lines of $200, though I can't imagine Apple ever paid that much. Some quick googling says that Intel maintains a gross margin of 50% or more, so manufacturing cost is $100 or less, and that doesn't include R&D work. This is all just napkin math, but I don't see how the M1 would allow Apple to shave more than $50 or so off their prices, which still gets them nowhere near Dell/Lenovo/HP territory. Apple laptops have substantially better screens than your average "I just want to use the internet" machine, better sound, mic and camera, better hard drive and an aluminium body, all of which has to be paid for somehow.
The current M1 macs already are better value than the Dell, etc options. The 1000 air has a much better cpu, better gpu, and much better battery life than the corresponding XPS for the same price. The only demerits are the shitty Webcam and largish bezels for 2020.
Unless you think Apple is loss leading on the M1 devices, which I just can't see them doing.
