Live data from Hacker News

MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

macrumors.com

81–90 of 524 posts

Re: MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

#81
post #24

I ended up getting two (one for each of my daughters). The thing about Apple is that as the "IT" guy for my family, its ecosystem is the one which needs the least attention from me. It really just works. They have used Windows and Linux before (my kids and wife, that is), but something is always not quite right and needs my involvement. These days gone 100% Mac, my interventions are usually initial setup and whenever…

Choosing an OS 101 https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/mx4dni/cho ... It used to be, > Do you fear technology? > > Yes > Is your daddy rich? > > Yes > MacOS I guess we can remove the second question now.

Ah yes, the classic tech guys on Hacker News that fear technology.

Re: MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

#82
post #11
post #8

I wonder what the margin profile is of the Neo vs Air vs MacBook Pro. I have to imagine the Neo is lower margin %, but maybe I'm wrong.

I wonder if they're losing money on the actual units to get more people into the ecosystem?

I don't think so.

For most people in the Apple ecosystem, the iPhone is central and the Neo is another useful (but secondary) companion device. Not unlike the Watch and Airpods.

Re: MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

#83
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the craziest thing is that a macbook for $599 that's more powerful than nearly anything they had offered a decade ago (except probably ram amount), and even after adjusting for inflation (which is like 35% from 10 years ago) means the price dropped at least $1500 for a comparable. (People may correct me if I'm wrong)

The ram is the real sticking point honestly. Yes they are more powerful but consider people's use case. My 2012 dual core mbp is still performant for what most people use their computers for: internet, email, office suite, etc. And I shoved 16gb RAM in that thing 10 years ago. I guess they will just swap on the fast ssd so it will be alright.

Friend of mine has 32GB laptop with top spec last gen Intel 9 and it barely handles larger Word documents and Teams calls.

The fan is just obnoxious on top of that.

Re: MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

#84
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of the buyers were never going to be buyers for the more expensive products.

You can afford to lose a lot of low-value low-margin buyers for not losing one high-value high-margin buyer.

I’m guessing the Neo attracts a lot of new Apple customers, many of which will become subscribers of higher margin Apple services & apps in the App Store.

Re: MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

#85

I think Apple's cost efficiency advantages are really compounding now and it'll get increasingly hard for competitors to catch up. Everything they put in the product is either in-house or benefit from their scale and negotiating power. In the MacBook Neo's case, everything from the in-house chipset and scale (for stuff like aluminum body) and the more RAM-efficient software is working in its favor. I'd bet that a dif…

I think the clear demonstration of this is how small Apple's motherboard is for the neo (and other M series) compared to everyone else). It really seems like the PC makers don't understand the benefits of low power chips sufficiently. If you cap your chips TDP such that it can be cooled passively, you save money on heatsink, fan, vents, power circuitry (e.g. fewer capacitors), battery size, etc.

Re: MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

#86

I would like to know how these are on XCode - would love to have the cheapest/most lightweight possible way to build iOS apps (derived from some cross-platform builder like Expo/Lynx/Dioxus) since I have no other use for MacOS. Looking at tech specs, it seems like the one with 512GB drive might be serviceable. I have a very old 256GB Air and I struggle to keep enough drive space open to have XCode installed on it.

you'll hit the RAM limit at some point, and you'd almost certainly want to mod it to alleviate the heat issues that kill sustained performance

[dead]

Re: MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

#87

I think Apple's cost efficiency advantages are really compounding now and it'll get increasingly hard for competitors to catch up. Everything they put in the product is either in-house or benefit from their scale and negotiating power. In the MacBook Neo's case, everything from the in-house chipset and scale (for stuff like aluminum body) and the more RAM-efficient software is working in its favor. I'd bet that a dif…

It will be interesting to see what happens. Other large laptop makers such Dell have some of the same scale advantages (minus in-house silicon) and might be more willing to sacrifice on profit margin.

Re: MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

#88
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ram is the real sticking point honestly. Yes they are more powerful but consider people's use case. My 2012 dual core mbp is still performant for what most people use their computers for: internet, email, office suite, etc. And I shoved 16gb RAM in that thing 10 years ago. I guess they will just swap on the fast ssd so it will be alright.

Friend of mine has 32GB laptop with top spec last gen Intel 9 and it barely handles larger Word documents and Teams calls. The fan is just obnoxious on top of that.

There is just no way it is actually barely handling them. My 2012 with the dual core handles that. Fans turning on doesn't mean it barely handles it. That is just how those intel macs were. They were like that on day 1 in 2012. Spotlight indexing could be enough to spin the fans. Still does the job though even if its hot and noisy.

Re: MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

#89
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Choosing an OS 101 https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/mx4dni/cho ... It used to be, > Do you fear technology? > > Yes > Is your daddy rich? > > Yes > MacOS I guess we can remove the second question now.

Ah yes, the classic tech guys on Hacker News that fear technology.

yeah, i think a lot of people on hacker news basically agree with that old meme that says "The most recent piece of technology I own is a printer from 2004 and I keep a loaded gun ready to shoot it if it ever makes an unexpected noise."

Re: MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

#90
post #24

I ended up getting two (one for each of my daughters). The thing about Apple is that as the "IT" guy for my family, its ecosystem is the one which needs the least attention from me. It really just works. They have used Windows and Linux before (my kids and wife, that is), but something is always not quite right and needs my involvement. These days gone 100% Mac, my interventions are usually initial setup and whenever…

Choosing an OS 101 https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/mx4dni/cho ... It used to be, > Do you fear technology? > > Yes > Is your daddy rich? > > Yes > MacOS I guess we can remove the second question now.

Yes I fear tech, idc
Post reply on HN