Apple recently released the MacBook Neo, a $600 laptop that is meant for students, casual users, and, more importantly, a gateway to the Apple ecosystem and securing future lifelong customers. What’s more interesting, you can get it for $500 if you are a student, which is Apple’s actual target market. The reception of the MacBook Neo was so good that even Apple was surprised by the response. It is expected that Apple will sell around 10 million units of the MacBook Neo before its next upgrade.
Now, what if Apple release something like a MacBook Neo, but a desktop version of it?
Disruption
Steve Jobs, Apple’s founder, once famously said that Apple just doesn’t ship crappy products. The MacBook Neo is a testament to that ideal: despite its low $600 price, it is a high-quality, uncompromised product. One of the reasons why that is the case is Apple’s mastery of supply-chain economics and vertical integration.
Tim Cook, even before he become the CEO of Apple, was famous for being a master in supply-chain logistics. To run a very tight ship moving massive amount of inventory from the factory and immediately into consumer’s hand is a feat of engineering itself, probably comparable of building the iPhone Pro itself.
Another reason why Apple managed to pull off the MacBook Neo is how vertically integrated their products are. For years, Apple’s CPU, GPU, I/Os, and even their storage blocks have all been designed in-house. This means that Apple can and is willing to cut margins on component costs to achieve their bigger goals of customer aqusition and getting a better product on the market. This is a reason why no one else can build something like the MacBook Neo. It’s just impossible for the competition to deliver the same product at that price.
Apple Can Make a Mac Neo Today
Yes, Apple can release a sub $400 (or even $300) starter headless Mac unit to the market. In fact, Apple has been releasing such a device for years now. The only issue is that Apple elected to let it run as tvOS instead of macOS.
Yes, I’m talking about the Apple TV 4K that is in stores right now. The current generation, which was released 3 years ago, runs on an A15 Bionic chip and has HDMI with optional Ethernet port.
Put in the A18 Pro with two USB-C ports up front, and you’ll have the Mac Neo with minimal cost. The current Mac Mini costs $599. The current Apple TV 4k costs $129 (or $149 if you want the one with an Ethernet port). Apple can easily sell the Mac Neo for $199 or even $299, and people will run for it in droves. Imagine having the power of a Mac in a device that is that small and cheap.
Creating it would be trivial, as there will be minimal changes on the Apple TV 4K production line. Apple has been trying to get into the enterprise business. A cheap desktop computer for businesses costs around $600 per computer. A $300 Mac Neo will certainly cause disruptions.
Conclusion
Just like the MacBook Neo, the potential of a super cheap but capable desktop Mac should not be overlooked. Apple already has all the ingredients to do it, and they are probably an Apple TV 4K that is running macOS in some development lab at Apple. It is just a question of wheather Apple is going to green light the project or not.
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