Apple just went down-market with MacBook Neo

The specs are … ok

The $599 base model gets you 256 GB of storage, two USB 3 ports (not Thunderbolt), no backlit keyboard and no Touch ID. If you want Touch ID and 512 GB of storage, that's the $699 configuration. Either way, you're getting 8 GB of memory and an iPhone-class processor, which puts this somewhere between a discounted MacBook Air and an iPad with the keyboard case that runs MacOS, though without a touchscreen. I'm sure this will be more than enough for the student or the end user who just does lightweight stuff in the browser. But with an older mobile processor and 8 GB of RAM, I don't expect this to be a machine that you can keep using for years and years.

The specs are what they are. I found it interesting that the product page read like an intro-to-Mac guide written for someone who has never touched one, or who always wanted a Mac but didn't have the budget for one. It walks you through what the trackpad does, advertises Safari and FaceTime by name, and assures you that Microsoft 365 and Zoom work on Mac. It literally says, "even if you've never used a Mac before." There's even a section advertising "free antivirus protections," which is just Apple's existing XProtect and Gatekeeper positioned against Defender.

Apple has done competitive marketing before (remember "I'm a Mac?"), but those ads positioned Mac as cooler and better for people who were already cross-shopping. For the Neo, Apple is saying "we're equal" at the same volume as "we're cool." The whole page is designed to make that person comfortable with the idea of switching over.

They're also leaning hard on the iPhone-plus-Mac story here, highlighting handoff, texting from your laptop, universal clipboard, AirDrop and iPhone mirroring. Anyone who has tried to make Phone Link work on Windows knows the pain Apple is solving, and the pitch is simple: If you already carry an iPhone -- and a lot of people do -- the ecosystem argument at $599 is suddenly very compelling. Plus, the laptop is literally cheaper than the cost of the phone. For some, that might be a no-brainer.

Not really an enterprise device

That said, this isn't going to rock the boat in the enterprise, and I'm not going to try to force it through that lens. With 8 GB of RAM and a mobile processor, I don't think that IT is going to add these to the list of machines that a user can pick from. Enterprise organizations will likely continue to buy MacBook Airs and Pros. The Neo might show up as a BYOD endpoint here and there, though, which does increase endpoint diversity. Past research of mine has shown that increasing endpoint diversity across both managed and unmanaged (including BYOD) devices is a driver of management and security complexity. I've got some research planned later this year to dig into that a bit more, and the MacBook Neo will definitely be on my mind then.

Enterprise organizations will likely continue to buy MacBook Airs and Pros.

Still, the implications of this are interesting, even if they're contained to the consumer market. Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer and ASUS have had the under-$800 laptop market to themselves for as long as I can remember. They competed with each other at that level but never had to worry about Apple showing up. Now they do, and while Windows OEMs might be able to tell a better spec story at $599, specs aren't the whole picture, and Apple knows it. For the person who wanted a Mac but couldn't justify the price, whether that's a student or a parent who mostly does email and web browsing, Apple just removed the largest remaining barrier. It'll be interesting to see how (or if) the PC vendors react, and if any other barriers emerge.

Gabe Knuth is the principal analyst covering end-user computing for Omdia.

Omdia is a division of Informa TechTarget. Its analysts have business relationships with technology vendors.