MacBook Neo is so popular that Apple doubled production

Post by fragmede » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 8:20 PM UTC

webnrrd2k wrote: post #100

ryandvm wrote: post #51

I don't doubt the Neo is a quality product, but I'm curious whether cheap MacBooks are going to sabotage Apple's cachet as a luxury brand. It's my personal experience that iOS users tend to look down on "green bubbles" in a way that can only be explained as some sort of brand superiority complex. I'm sure millionaires wouldn't appreciate it if Lamborghini sold a $25K model...

It's not Lamborghini, but Lotus had the $40,000 Elise a while ago. I don't remember how it worked out in the end, but a lot of people were excited about them at the time. Edit lot -> not

Post by shaewest » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 8:23 PM UTC

ayewo wrote: post #192

snowwrestler wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has never been a luxury brand. It’s a label lobbed at them by critics and fans of competing products. But it’s never been supported by their price points, volumes, marketing, or operations. The few times they have tried to play in the luxury market, like their gold $10k Apple Watch, it went pretty much nowhere and they quickly stopped. They make not-crappy productivity tools at not-cheap price points, and aim f…

> Apple has never been a luxury brand. How do you explain this $1,000 monitor stand [1]? Or its iPhone "carry bag" collaboration with ISSEY MIYAKE retailing at $149.95 to $229.95 aka the iPhone Pocket [2]? 1: https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/wwdc-2019-craziest-revea... 2: https://www.apple.com/ng/newsroom/2025/11/introducing-iphone...

Post by ioblomov » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 8:24 PM UTC

bradyd wrote: post #180

snowwrestler wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has never been a luxury brand. It’s a label lobbed at them by critics and fans of competing products. But it’s never been supported by their price points, volumes, marketing, or operations. The few times they have tried to play in the luxury market, like their gold $10k Apple Watch, it went pretty much nowhere and they quickly stopped. They make not-crappy productivity tools at not-cheap price points, and aim f…

Apple definitely still has products that cross into the luxury brand category. For example the Apple Watch Hermès, which starts at $1249. https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-watch/apple-watch-hermes

Post by philistine » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 8:33 PM UTC

adgjlsfhk1 wrote: post #85

2001zhaozhao wrote: post #74

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.

Post by greatgib » Wed, Jun 03, 2026, 8:35 PM UTC

juancn wrote: 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…