6 ms·

It's amazing you can get an iPad for $349 and a Macbook for $599. Even the plastic 2009 macbook alone was $999 at the lowest. Very strange to see a company do t

It's amazing you can get an iPad for $349 and a Macbook for $599. Even the plastic 2009 macbook alone was $999 at the lowest. Very strange to see a company do this when everything else just seems to have gone up and up.

sva_ 5mo ago
Someone who uses a MacBook Neo in School/University probably has a much higher chance of getting a higher-end MacBook later on.
- m463 5mo ago
  This is a tried and true long-game. Microsoft did this with educational versions of office/etc
hylaride 5mo ago
My understanding is that Apple has been seeing market share issues at the low end, especially in education. Since everybody has a phone, the "casual" computer market is full of Chromebooks at cheap laptops. Laptops are a tool (again?) instead of a necessity.
- vovavili 5mo ago
  Would be foolish of them not to take advantage of Microsoft having self-sabotage as its favorite pastime.
  - PaulHoule 5mo ago
    ... and a huge amount of help from Dell, Lenovo and the like.
    - forsalebypwner 5mo ago
      yeah, that's a good point... man, my opinion of Lenovo has tanked in the last decade and I'm only just realizing it now. I always thought of Dell as kinda shitty, but Lenovo had a great thing going that just kinda atrophied in some cases, and actively got worse in others
  - bigyabai 5mo ago
    Apple has taken advantage of that for the past 2 decades, to the tune of a minority share in the PC market. Meanwhile Nvidia is happily cresting what, 5 trillion in valuation? It's a weird time to be an Apple shareholder.
    - seanmcdirmid 5mo ago
      Apple M series are competitive in inference at least. I wish Apple would just aim their chip people at NVIDIA in everything else. They are probably the only ones that have the talent, resources, and capital to do that.
      - bigyabai 5mo ago
        They're honestly not competitive for inference, it's why datacenters largely ignore Apple Silicon. Even the M5 Max is still bottlenecked for dense models due to the relatively weak GPU and paltry ~500-600gb/s of GPU memory bandwidth. For reference, the RTX 5080 (a consumer GPU) has 1tb of VRAM bandwidth and runs circles around the M5 Max in GPU compute benchmarks: https://browser.geekbench.com/opencl-benchmarks https://browser.geekbench.com/opencl-benchmarks Even for home inference, it's hard to recommend a dedicated Mac over a cheap Nvidia server box. > They are probably the only ones that have the talent, resources, and capital to do that. Apple invented OpenCL. The problem was their reluctance to work with the rest of the industry, and once CUDA took over it was too late for them to even try.
        seanmcdirmid 5mo ago
        > For reference, the RTX 5080 (a consumer GPU) has 1tb of VRAM bandwidth and runs circles around the M5 Max in GPU compute benchmarks: https://browser.geekbench.com/opencl-benchmarks https://browser.geekbench.com/opencl-benchmarks NVIDIA hampers their GPUs with un-unified graphics memory, while the M series can use everything the computer has (well, you need to save 4GB or so). It also works on airplanes and in hotel rooms, a cheap NVIDIA server box with 64GB of RAM (what my M3 Max laptop has)....how cheap is that?
- varispeed 5mo ago
  Chromebook should be classified as torture device.
  - actionfromafar 5mo ago
    Enhanced interrogation computing device. We just need your personal data!
microtonal 5mo ago
It's a smart move. I started using a Mac as a student in 2007 with a cheap Mac Mini and then I was so enthusiastic that I also got the white plastic MacBook, so that I could use Mac at the university. Since then I have bought countless MacBooks and some other models (I like to refresh every 1-3 years and then my old model typically gets passed along to other family members). Trying to get students to use your product is a good strategy. Also, people tend to mix pricing increases with inflation. When I my first iPhone 3G, it cost 500-700 Euro if you were able to get your hands on one without a subscription (remember when iPhones were provider-exclusive?) [1] An inflation calculator for my country tells that this is 753-1054 in current Euros. The iPhone 17 is now sold here for 839 Euro new. Same ballpark. [1] https://www.iculture.nl/nieuws/iphone-3g-als-los-toestel-87-tot-1304-euro/ https://www.iculture.nl/nieuws/iphone-3g-als-los-toestel-87-...
- 40four 5mo ago
  My first Mac was the same white plastic one, I think it was called the iBook back then? Cost me the majority of my summer job earnings going into freshman year, but it was a great machine for me back then! I still have it in a box somewhere in the basement, might be fun pull it out and resurrect it :)
  - philistine 5mo ago
    The white plastic Mac laptop, depending on the generation, was either called the iBook, or later the Macbook when they moved to Intel. Blame it on IBM who didn't want Apple to use PowerBook for a Mac with an Intel chip, which forced the company to rename the whole line.
saltyoldman 5mo ago
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)
- asdff 5mo ago
  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.
  - riffraff 5mo ago
    > I guess they will just swap on the fast ssd so it will be alright but that should cause extra wear on the SSD, or is this no longer a concern?
    - asdff 5mo ago
      Certainly but I'd guess the problem won't manifest for years and other showstopping pieces might fail before then. That old frankenstein macbook of mine had the same 850 evo ssd I shoved in it for like 8 years of use and abuse, always high temps with that macbook too. People say you shouldn't use an ssd like that but oh well, it seems to work alright.
    - GeekyBear 5mo ago
      There wouldn't be so many people who see no need to upgrade their M1 series computers if this were a real concern.
  - varispeed 5mo ago
    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.
866-RON-0-FEZ 5mo ago
It's not so amazing when you realize the Neo is an iPad's innards with a keyboard glued to it. $250 for a keyboard and a hinge. This is the same company that for years dragged their feet on the iPad Mini because Steve thought you would need "sandpaper to shave down your fingertips".
- reaperducer 5mo ago
  This is the same company that for years dragged their feet on the iPad Mini because Steve thought you would need "sandpaper to shave down your fingertips". You know that Steve Jobs has been dead for 15 years, right? You might want to invent a new axe to grind. At least something from this decade.
- GuinansEyebrows 5mo ago
  > It's not so amazing when you realize the Neo is an iPad's innards with a keyboard glued to it. $250 for a keyboard and a hinge. that's cheaper than a Magic Keyboard, depending on the iPad :)
deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]
nikcub 5mo ago
and an iPhone 17e for $599
- m463 5mo ago
  well, also apple has been inflating the price for phones since forever. the iphone launched at $499 EDIT: hmm.. I guess iphone 1 was $499 or $599 and that required a 2-year AT&T contract. Don't know what the actual price was. I do know the top iphone 17 pro max is $1,999. but it does have 2tb of storage, which is amazing in a different way.
  - ptmcc 5mo ago
    $499 2007 dollars when the first iPhone launched is about $820 in 2026 dollars The basic iPhone 17 starts at $799 The 17e is only $599 If anything the iPhone is getting cheaper in real terms, not more expensive
    - m463 5mo ago
      of course you're right, but phones have been getting more expensive. They have also become more capable and it seems having a more capable phone has really benefited people. also: by your numbers that means $1,999 in 2026 would have been $3200 in 2007.
  - ascagnel_ 5mo ago
    The first iPhone launched without a carrier subsidy. When the iPhone 4 launched on Verizon in 2011, you could either spend $200 and get locked into a 2-year contract, $300 and get locked into a 1-year contract, or buy the thing outright for $650. Since you didn't get a discount for bringing your own phone to Verizon, it was more cost-effective to get the subsidized phone.
m463 5mo ago
Costco sells an ipad for $299 (and many memberships refund some of this price) EDIT: also on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZ75TN5F/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZ75TN5F/

sva_ 5mo ago

Someone who uses a MacBook Neo in School/University probably has a much higher chance of getting a higher-end MacBook later on.

m463 5mo ago
This is a tried and true long-game. Microsoft did this with educational versions of office/etc

hylaride 5mo ago

My understanding is that Apple has been seeing market share issues at the low end, especially in education. Since everybody has a phone, the "casual" computer market is full of Chromebooks at cheap laptops. Laptops are a tool (again?) instead of a necessity.

vovavili 5mo ago
Would be foolish of them not to take advantage of Microsoft having self-sabotage as its favorite pastime.
- PaulHoule 5mo ago
  ... and a huge amount of help from Dell, Lenovo and the like.
  - forsalebypwner 5mo ago
    yeah, that's a good point... man, my opinion of Lenovo has tanked in the last decade and I'm only just realizing it now. I always thought of Dell as kinda shitty, but Lenovo had a great thing going that just kinda atrophied in some cases, and actively got worse in others
- bigyabai 5mo ago
  Apple has taken advantage of that for the past 2 decades, to the tune of a minority share in the PC market. Meanwhile Nvidia is happily cresting what, 5 trillion in valuation? It's a weird time to be an Apple shareholder.
  - seanmcdirmid 5mo ago
    Apple M series are competitive in inference at least. I wish Apple would just aim their chip people at NVIDIA in everything else. They are probably the only ones that have the talent, resources, and capital to do that.
    - bigyabai 5mo ago
      They're honestly not competitive for inference, it's why datacenters largely ignore Apple Silicon. Even the M5 Max is still bottlenecked for dense models due to the relatively weak GPU and paltry ~500-600gb/s of GPU memory bandwidth. For reference, the RTX 5080 (a consumer GPU) has 1tb of VRAM bandwidth and runs circles around the M5 Max in GPU compute benchmarks: https://browser.geekbench.com/opencl-benchmarks https://browser.geekbench.com/opencl-benchmarks Even for home inference, it's hard to recommend a dedicated Mac over a cheap Nvidia server box. > They are probably the only ones that have the talent, resources, and capital to do that. Apple invented OpenCL. The problem was their reluctance to work with the rest of the industry, and once CUDA took over it was too late for them to even try.
      - seanmcdirmid 5mo ago
        > For reference, the RTX 5080 (a consumer GPU) has 1tb of VRAM bandwidth and runs circles around the M5 Max in GPU compute benchmarks: https://browser.geekbench.com/opencl-benchmarks https://browser.geekbench.com/opencl-benchmarks NVIDIA hampers their GPUs with un-unified graphics memory, while the M series can use everything the computer has (well, you need to save 4GB or so). It also works on airplanes and in hotel rooms, a cheap NVIDIA server box with 64GB of RAM (what my M3 Max laptop has)....how cheap is that?
varispeed 5mo ago
Chromebook should be classified as torture device.
- actionfromafar 5mo ago
  Enhanced interrogation computing device. We just need your personal data!

microtonal 5mo ago

It's a smart move. I started using a Mac as a student in 2007 with a cheap Mac Mini and then I was so enthusiastic that I also got the white plastic MacBook, so that I could use Mac at the university. Since then I have bought countless MacBooks and some other models (I like to refresh every 1-3 years and then my old model typically gets passed along to other family members). Trying to get students to use your product is a good strategy. Also, people tend to mix pricing increases with inflation. When I my first iPhone 3G, it cost 500-700 Euro if you were able to get your hands on one without a subscription (remember when iPhones were provider-exclusive?) [1] An inflation calculator for my country tells that this is 753-1054 in current Euros. The iPhone 17 is now sold here for 839 Euro new. Same ballpark. [1] https://www.iculture.nl/nieuws/iphone-3g-als-los-toestel-87-tot-1304-euro/ https://www.iculture.nl/nieuws/iphone-3g-als-los-toestel-87-...

40four 5mo ago
My first Mac was the same white plastic one, I think it was called the iBook back then? Cost me the majority of my summer job earnings going into freshman year, but it was a great machine for me back then! I still have it in a box somewhere in the basement, might be fun pull it out and resurrect it :)
- philistine 5mo ago
  The white plastic Mac laptop, depending on the generation, was either called the iBook, or later the Macbook when they moved to Intel. Blame it on IBM who didn't want Apple to use PowerBook for a Mac with an Intel chip, which forced the company to rename the whole line.

saltyoldman 5mo ago

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)

asdff 5mo ago
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.
- riffraff 5mo ago
  > I guess they will just swap on the fast ssd so it will be alright but that should cause extra wear on the SSD, or is this no longer a concern?
  - asdff 5mo ago
    Certainly but I'd guess the problem won't manifest for years and other showstopping pieces might fail before then. That old frankenstein macbook of mine had the same 850 evo ssd I shoved in it for like 8 years of use and abuse, always high temps with that macbook too. People say you shouldn't use an ssd like that but oh well, it seems to work alright.
  - GeekyBear 5mo ago
    There wouldn't be so many people who see no need to upgrade their M1 series computers if this were a real concern.
- varispeed 5mo ago
  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.

866-RON-0-FEZ 5mo ago

It's not so amazing when you realize the Neo is an iPad's innards with a keyboard glued to it. $250 for a keyboard and a hinge. This is the same company that for years dragged their feet on the iPad Mini because Steve thought you would need "sandpaper to shave down your fingertips".

reaperducer 5mo ago
This is the same company that for years dragged their feet on the iPad Mini because Steve thought you would need "sandpaper to shave down your fingertips". You know that Steve Jobs has been dead for 15 years, right? You might want to invent a new axe to grind. At least something from this decade.
GuinansEyebrows 5mo ago
> It's not so amazing when you realize the Neo is an iPad's innards with a keyboard glued to it. $250 for a keyboard and a hinge. that's cheaper than a Magic Keyboard, depending on the iPad :)

deleted 5mo ago

[deleted]

nikcub 5mo ago

and an iPhone 17e for $599

m463 5mo ago
well, also apple has been inflating the price for phones since forever. the iphone launched at $499 EDIT: hmm.. I guess iphone 1 was $499 or $599 and that required a 2-year AT&T contract. Don't know what the actual price was. I do know the top iphone 17 pro max is $1,999. but it does have 2tb of storage, which is amazing in a different way.
- ptmcc 5mo ago
  $499 2007 dollars when the first iPhone launched is about $820 in 2026 dollars The basic iPhone 17 starts at $799 The 17e is only $599 If anything the iPhone is getting cheaper in real terms, not more expensive
  - m463 5mo ago
    of course you're right, but phones have been getting more expensive. They have also become more capable and it seems having a more capable phone has really benefited people. also: by your numbers that means $1,999 in 2026 would have been $3200 in 2007.
- ascagnel_ 5mo ago
  The first iPhone launched without a carrier subsidy. When the iPhone 4 launched on Verizon in 2011, you could either spend $200 and get locked into a 2-year contract, $300 and get locked into a 1-year contract, or buy the thing outright for $650. Since you didn't get a discount for bringing your own phone to Verizon, it was more cost-effective to get the subsidized phone.

m463 5mo ago

Costco sells an ipad for $299 (and many memberships refund some of this price) EDIT: also on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZ75TN5F/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DZ75TN5F/