Apple announces new Mac sales record following MacBook Neo launch • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple announces new Mac sales record following MacBook Neo launch

#81

Post by didip » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 5:15 PM UTC

nickjj wrote: post #65

kube-system wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but the $600 MacBooks are coming straight for the $600 plastic shitbox windows laptops. The competition at this price point is weak.

> The competition at this price point is weak. Is it though? 6 months ago for $575, I picked up a 15" 1080p IPS display laptop with an AMD Ryzen 7 6800H (8 cores / 16 threads), 32 GB of DDR5 RAM, Radeon 680M iGPU that can use up to 8 GB VRAM and a 1 TB NVME SSD with a backlight keyboard, a bunch of USB ports and HDMI port. It weighs the same as a MBP and comes with a 2 year manufacturer warranty. It's upgradable to 6…

What you just described is not better than Macbook Neo.

Re: Apple announces new Mac sales record following MacBook Neo launch

#82

Post by bilbo0s » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 5:18 PM UTC

jakeydus wrote: post #68

jonny_eh wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It doesn't matter how much cheap hardware you throw at the unwashed masses. > Apple Announces New Mac Sales Record Following MacBook Neo Launch

Yeah, it apparently matters at least a little

This.

Maybe it's not the cheap hardware? I don't know?

But when you put the following assertions out there:

>Tahoe/iOS26 are still the most godawful buggy pieces of software Apple ever created

and

>It doesn't matter how much cheap hardware you throw at the unwashed masses

with the market data being what it is.

I guess I'm just saying those statements definitely go under the old Abe Lincoln admonition that at times "Both may be, but one MUST be, wrong."

Re: Apple announces new Mac sales record following MacBook Neo launch

#83

Post by wolvoleo » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 5:40 PM UTC

Huh the neo can't really be the driver of this right? As it's barely out and I think not yet physically available in most places.

The headline hints at a causation that I don't think exists.

Re: Apple announces new Mac sales record following MacBook Neo launch

#84

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 5:43 PM UTC

longislandguido wrote: post #8

Tahoe/iOS26 are still the most godawful buggy pieces of software Apple ever created. I counted 0 net improvements and countless new bugs. Apple is having their Windows ME moment. It doesn't matter how much cheap hardware you throw at the unwashed masses. It's all about the software they would say. The chickens have come home to roost.

[deleted]

Re: Apple announces new Mac sales record following MacBook Neo launch

#85

Post by tonyedgecombe » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 5:46 PM UTC

nodesocket wrote: post #41

Neo is wily popular, but don't expect it to generate significant profits for Apple (disclosure I'm a AAPL shareholder). I assume the profit/profit margin on Neo is paper thin.

I suspect they have managed to drive their costs right down and are still maintaining their typical profit margins.

Re: Apple announces new Mac sales record following MacBook Neo launch

#86

Post by zoogeny » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 5:50 PM UTC

Part of me thinks this is a bad sign for Apple. They have always been a premium brand. I'm not a business major, but it just feels like a bad thing when premium enters low-end markets.

But on the other hand, this is kind of the culmination of them owning their hardware stack. They can avoid the commoditization race to the bottom since they are the exclusive owners of a significant amount of their hardware vertical, From chips to enclosure. Perhaps that will let them retain the margins that were previously driven by a consumer base that prized prestige over price.

While my intuition is that this may be the last big cash grab that Apple squeezes out of their premium image, they did have a massive hit back in the day with the original iMac (the CRT based one). They've defined "cheap and premium" categories before.

Re: Apple announces new Mac sales record following MacBook Neo launch

#87

Post by unsnap_biceps » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 6:16 PM UTC

kps wrote: post #77

furyofantares wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Tahoe/iOS26 are still the most godawful buggy pieces of software Apple ever created. What is everyone seeing that I'm not? I like Tahoe/iOS26, I haven't noticed regressions with it.

My Mac is staying releases back, but iOS26 no longer respects light mode. Since I see astigmatic halation, this will be my last iDevice.

I run light mode on my iPhone and haven't noticed it switching to dark mode in any way. Do you have the automatic mode selection enabled accidentally?

Re: Apple announces new Mac sales record following MacBook Neo launch

#88

Post by ksec » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 6:34 PM UTC

I actually liked the Design of Neo more so than the Air. It is just more practical. I also like thin bezel rather than no / minimal bezel.

I still haven't found any concrete evidence but I think the Key travel on Neo is at least 1-2mm higher than Air and Pro. And back to the good old MacBook Pro Early 2015 era keyboard.

If it could make the trackpad completely silent and an A19 Pro with 12GB, double the SSD speed would have been perfect. Would have loved M5 with 16GB Memory but I guess that eats into Air.

Re: Apple announces new Mac sales record following MacBook Neo launch

#89

Post by bilbo0s » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 6:52 PM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #33

longislandguido wrote: post #8

Tahoe/iOS26 are still the most godawful buggy pieces of software Apple ever created. I counted 0 net improvements and countless new bugs. Apple is having their Windows ME moment. It doesn't matter how much cheap hardware you throw at the unwashed masses. It's all about the software they would say. The chickens have come home to roost.

> Tahoe/iOS26 are still the most godawful buggy pieces of software Apple ever created. Someone hasn't been around for very long in the Apple era, not even counting things before NexT took over.

Heck the first version of MacOS X on that titanium power book that flopped up and down like a 5 and a quarter inch floppy was maddening.

To say Tahoe is the worst only reveals how few of the releases of MacOS X the poster actually used.

Re: Apple announces new Mac sales record following MacBook Neo launch

#90

Post by mordv » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 6:58 PM UTC

simonh wrote: post #48

longislandguido wrote: post #8

Tahoe/iOS26 are still the most godawful buggy pieces of software Apple ever created. I counted 0 net improvements and countless new bugs. Apple is having their Windows ME moment. It doesn't matter how much cheap hardware you throw at the unwashed masses. It's all about the software they would say. The chickens have come home to roost.

To a new customer it doesn’t matter how Tahoe compares to previous MacOS, it matters how it compares to current Windows.

Makes me think if it was carefully calculated strategy, so Windows users would feel more familiar with new os. Everything in MacOs is frustratingly unusual for windows users, but at least annoying bugs are there. And you google how to deal with it, getting familiar with the os.