An ASUS executive has admitted that Apple’s lower-priced MacBook Neo is a “shock” to the PC industry, reports PCMag (Via MacRumors). The MacBook Neo, which is now available in Apple retail stores, starts at just $599 ($499 for education customers), making it a valid competitor for the budget-priced PC laptops offered by ASUS and other PC makers.
“Given Apple’s historically very premium pricing, launching such an affordable product is certainly a shock to the entire market,” said ASUS’s Chief Financial Officer Nick Wu, according to a translated transcript of the earnings call published by Seeking Alpha.
While Wu claims that the MacBook Neo’s limited specs, such as only having 8GB of RAM, may impact its ability to use certain apps. That said, a YouTube video from MacBook Neo reviewer Patrick Tomasso shows him easily playing back 4K video in DaVinci Resolve and Final Cut Pro, editing a photo in Adobe Lightroom, and having numerous tabs open in Google Chrome on Apple’s new base model laptop. Reviews from several other quarters all had praise for the MacBook Neo’s performance.
While Wu believes that Apple is positioning the MacBook Neo as a “content consumption” device that is more like an iPad, he says the PC industry is taking the debut of the MacBook Neo “very seriously.”
“I believe all PC vendors, including upstream vendors like Microsoft, Intel and AMD, they’re all taking this very seriously, seriously discussing how to compete with this product in the entire PC ecosystem,” said Wu, per the transcript. “The entire PC system will launch corresponding products to compete with Apple.”
That said, Wu believes the MacBook Neo’s actual impact on the PC market remains to be seen, saying, “the final market competition outcome is hard to predict, we just need more time.”
