MacBook Cheap would have been the most honest … in more than one way.
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Apple Explains 'MacBook Neo' Name
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Neo name is different and was not expecting it. Was thinking that Apple might go for simply 'MacBook'. As for the colors, it is a disappointment. Silver is the same as other MacBooks and is not a fun color. Blush is pale. Indigo is bright however it can be said that it is a significantly lighter version of Midnight MacBook Air. Citrus is new and seems to be good. However that too seems not so bright in certain hands on videos. Would have been good if the colors were similar to the ones in the iMac. In short can say two colors mainly Indigo and Citrus, of which only Citrus seems to be a new and fresh one altogether.
tripleburst
macrumors 6502
Fair points but i’m talking about the person not in the photo. The parent who’ll buy it for her. They didn’t balk at buying her headphones as the price to them is nothing. Imagine a laptop with the same price range. It’s even a bigger no brainer if the daughter asks for a laptop. And for a certain tech segment of people, the price falls into impulse buy territory. Those are definitely not budget minded. “It isn’t cheap just because it’s “cheap”, it’s from apple”. It’s also the type of item you’ll buy for other people without thinking twice. Remember this is not a PSA. It’s marketing trying to push a narrative or mindset. They still want everyone to buy this even if they already established a target market.
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turbineseaplane
macrumors Penryn
I am certain Apple considered this name a lot. But "Macbooke" as it would be pronounced by many, does not really roll over the tongue so well. Or looks like antiquated, Shakespearean English.
Also I am sure when people see "MacBook E" many would think the "E" stands for "Education" and hence might dismiss the product as "cheap school market crap". Certainly a connotation Apple would not want for that product.
As logical as "MacBook E" would be, I think it is not a great name.
"MacBook Neo" is certainly more appealing, even if not as logical.
Because "neo" means "new" in several languages, the "New MacBook" is not a completely illogical name either, I find.
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The Game 161
macrumors Nehalem
Eriamjh1138@DAN
macrumors 65816
Lioness~
macrumors 601
Can always hope that they didn't use yhe MacBook-name, because we will see a 11-12" MacBook later.
Instant buy for me 🔥
I think those are called "iPad" now...
If the next macOS version, rumored to be "touch enabled", would also run on an iPad Pro, then for sure that would be your '11" MacBook' right there.
That would be a very confusing product line.
MacBook Neo - low cost for students and light users
MacBook Air - for more casual users though can handle some more pro oriented stuff
MacBook Pro - can handle your pro needs.
Where would a MacBook fit in with that? Just a little more pro than the Air? It would make for a pretty convoluted product line. 3 options makes sense, low cost, medium cost, high cost. Simple.
Lioness~
macrumors 601
I engage in the way I wan't on this forum, and in this thread.
There's a reason that the disagree option exists. I think it's just great.
If you have a problem with that, tell MR.
of course, though it seems it is more feelings then anything substantive. Enjoy your little emoticons though 😀
What you described is a very different product. I'm also in the boat that would love the 12" MacBook to return, and the main reason for that is the form factor. The 12" MacBook is EXTREMELY thin and light. An iPad with a magic keyboard is thicker and heavier than a MacBook Air, and the iPad doesn't not balance the same way a MacBook does with it's built in hinge etc. Obviously I'm not even bringing up the OS difference, though macOS is far superior to iPadOS, and I don't see that changing anytime soon even with multiple updates. I own an iPad and it's a great accessory, but my Mac is my main device. So yeah an iPad will never replace that 12" MacBook experience.
While I agree and think it would be hard to see where it fits in, my guess would be to look at it exactly like the iPad lineup. You have the 3 tiers: base, Air, and Pro, and the MacBook lineup is the same: Neo, Air, and Pro. But there's one more iPad in the lineup as an outlier, the iPad mini. The 12 inch MacBook would be like the iPad mini in the MacBook lineup, could possibly even adapt the same naming scheme as MacBook mini. The only problem is I see it as having the exact same specs as the Neo, just thinner, therefore wouldn't make as much sense, so that means in order to make more sense I would have to think of something to differentiate it a bit in the same way the iPad mini does. It's possible it could have an M chip but maybe stay one generation behind, but honestly I think having a newer generation A Pro compared to the Neo makes more since, so for example if this MacBook mini released this year it would have an A19 Pro, one generation newer than the current Neo. Also be better than the Neo by having a Force Touch trackpad, backlit keyboard, MagSafe, thinner bezels with a notch, the N1 chip, Touch ID standard, and 12GB of RAM and have the starting price be $799 or $899. Still a little weird but the fact that the iPad lineup already does it mean it technically could work.
You are running through open doors...
I was just being a bit sarcastic in my last comment, because I feel that this is what Apple marketing seems to think: that users who want a super portable device should go iPad. Even though it is actually heavier and thicker when a keyboard is added, and let's not even discuss the toyOS it is running... But all that does not seem to compute inside Apple's head. To them the iPad is a great computer.
I am in the market for a high-end ultra-portable Mac laptop. I'd be happy to spend thousands of dollars on a 12" MacBook with 64GB or even 256GB RAM and an 8TB SSD. Alas, I am probably the only person in the world who wants such a device, it seems. I don't need an M5 Max CPU, nor three Thunderbolt 5 ports, but I want small and lots of RAM and super lots of storage - all in one tiny portable device, with no external HDs, no dongles, no cloud storage.
Sadly, as has been seen with the 12" MacBook, this is a market that no one truly understands at Apple, nor knows how to market properly.
Ultra-portability requires extreme miniaturization, which incurs much higher costs.
The tiniest ultra-portable laptops, Walkmen or Discmen from Sony were never their cheapest models. To the contrary. Those were always premium devices. You paid for the smallest size.
The terraced, layered battery in the 12" MacBook for example was much more expensive than the cubic block batteries in all the other Mac laptops. Developing the non-moving force-feedback trackpad was much more expensive, compared to a standard yet bulky mechanical moving trackpad. The R&D that went into using the WiFi antennas as speaker ducts to get amazingly clear and loud sound out of very small speakers incurred quite some costs, compared to the tinny sound one would get from regular tiny speakers in such a small device. Just to name three examples.
That is why the 12" MacBook was actually quite expensive in comparison to a MacBook Air.
But in most people's heads, people who tend to think "bigger is better", these tiny MacBooks should have been the cheapest Macs - because smaller to them is worse (hence must be cheaper).
It's a tough sale. Apple's marketing department would at first need to educate the consumers that miniaturization drives up prices, that a tiny high-end MacBook would cost more than the highest high-end MacBook Pro.
So the 12" MacBook was this weird device, that was actually a somewhat higher-end ultra-portable, but never properly marketed as such by Apple. And consumers just compared screen sizes and expected it to be cheaper than the larger MacBook Air ... not understanding that miniaturization below a certain size becomes more expensive again, not cheaper.
And Apple marketing was too dumb to point this out or too lazy to educate consumers about this. They never really knew what to do with the 12" MacBook. It was probably the brain child of Jony Ive - but the marketing department never got the memos...
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brgjoe
macrumors 6502a
Just realized I already had a "NEO" laptop. That is, I got out my Windows laptop (Acer) that I purchased about a year or so ago to play Baldur's Gate 3.
The name of it? "Predator Helios Neo 14". Wonder if Acer will send a few cease and desist letters to Apple. Only haflway joking here.
The name of it? "Predator Helios Neo 14". Wonder if Acer will send a few cease and desist letters to Apple. Only haflway joking here.