Most of the time, Apple fans are a very easy bunch to please. A new iPhone is released with just the most minimal of upgrades to the previous model and yet it sells well, as loyal fans and customers flock to purchase the latest model. It’s the same with MacBooks: a slightly better screen, a few more GB of RAM, and they’re more than happy.
The launch this week of the MacBook Neo, however, has provoked a very different reaction. With a US launch price of just 599 US dollars (499 US dollars for students) it is, by far, Apple’s cheapest laptop yet: clearly positioned for entry-level consumers who might otherwise have bought a Windows-operated laptop or even a Chromebook. Apple devotees appear to be put off by the Neo primarily for its 8 GB of RAM and use of the A18 chip, usually reserved for iPhones, not MacBooks, which run on Apple’s series of M chips.
The reaction entirely misses the point of the MacBook Neo. Current Apple users who own its higher-end MacBooks and perform complicated tasks, using RAM-heavy graphics or AI applications are not the target. It’s a lot like the owner of a Toyota Century SUV declaring themselves disappointed with the specs of the latest Toyota Yaris. Yes, for you they may be disappointing, but you are not the market Apple is looking to attract (students, primarily, who might browse the internet and write essays with it, and consume streaming content).
Perhaps there’s something else going on. Perhaps Apple’s higher-end customers are simply annoyed that the brand has so brazenly decided to release a product aimed at those who might otherwise feel themselves priced out of the higher-end MacBooks? Such complete and utter snobbery is rare these days, at least outside the tech world.
For any casual Apple customer however, or for anyone looking to make the move into its ecosystem, the MacBook Neo looks like a game changer.
Not that it was ever that expensive
The argument against Apple has always been that its products are luxury items, priced beyond the reach of ordinary consumers, something which is largely a myth. The MacBook Air, which until this week was the entry-level MacBook, has always been a bargain. The new M5 model starts at 1,099 US dollars; the M4 can still be found for 899 US dollars while stocks last. Go back a few Ms and the prices drop further still. This piece is being written on a 2020 MacBook Air running the M1 chip, and for everyday tasks (writing, browsing, video calls, streaming) it performs as well as almost anything available today. Apple builds products that last. The value, over time, is exceptional.
The Neo takes this a step further. At 599 US dollars, it is genuinely new territory for Apple’s laptop line. But here is what the spec-obsessives are missing: the machine itself is gorgeous. Made from the same aluminium as Apple’s more expensive models, it feels and looks premium in a way that Windows laptops at similar prices simply do not. It ships in four colours (blush, indigo, silver and a new citrus yellow) with a 13-inch Liquid Retina display running at 2,408 by 1,506 pixels, 500 nits of brightness and support for one billion colours. Battery life, according to Apple, reaches up to 16 hours. For the target audience that is not a compromised machine.
The pull of the ecosystem
Apple’s ecosystem is one of the most powerful lock-in mechanisms in consumer technology. Once a customer owns an iPhone, an iPad and a MacBook, they are rarely in a hurry to leave. The seamlessness of Handoff, AirDrop and iMessage makes switching painful in a way that no amount of competitive pricing from Microsoft or Google can easily overcome. The question Apple has long faced is how to get people through the door in the first place. Chromebooks have dominated classrooms for years, while Windows laptops at 400 to 500 US dollars rule the bottom end of the market. The Neo, priced correctly and built to Apple’s usual standard, is designed to change that.
The timing is arguably perfect. Gartner expects PC prices to rise by 17 per cent in this year, partly due to component shortages driven by soaring demand for AI server hardware. The International Data Corporation meanwhile estimates that PC sales will fall by 11.3 per cent this year. Apple has launched a 599 US dollars laptop just as its competitors are about to make their own entry-level machines more expensive and less attractive. Whether by design or good fortune, the moment is well chosen.
Accessibility, reinvented
Producers of Windows machines should be worried. Not because the Neo is technically revolutionary (as those Apple fanboys have been quick to point out, it is not) but because it makes the Apple experience genuinely accessible to a much wider audience. Apple’s own benchmarks claim the A18 Pro performs up to three times faster than Intel Core Ultra 5-based PC laptops in standard tests. More strikingly, the chip’s 16-core Neural Engine means the Neo runs Apple Intelligence, the company’s suite of on-device AI features, at the same level as the pricier MacBook Air. A 599 US dollars laptop with serious AI capabilities is a combination most Windows manufacturers cannot currently match.
The Neo does, admittedly, make a few concessions. The base model lacks Touch ID and a backlit keyboard. MagSafe charging is absent. The right USB-C port runs at only USB 2.0 speeds. For students on a tight budget, none of these are dealbreakers. Compared with a similarly priced Chromebook or budget Windows machine, the trade-offs are negligible and the advantages, such as build quality, software, longevity, and above all the ecosystem, are substantial.
Apple has not reinvented the laptop with the Neo. What it has done is reinvented its own accessibility, at a price it has never before attempted. It will sell in very large numbers. It is no surprise that the only people who feel genuinely disappointed by any of this are those who would never buy it in the first place.
Photo: Apple.
