Apple sold the the base model M1 Macbook Air through Walmart for $600 between when they stopped selling it directly up to early this year. It looks like this computer is about as performant as that one, so I guess they started to have trouble sourcing components and came up with the Neo as their replacement.
>Apple sold the the base model M1 Macbook Air through Walmart for $600 between when they stopped selling it directly up to early this year.
I took advantage of this after the fact. I bought a pristine open box M1 from VIPoutlet (Walmart's closeout brand, as I understand it) on Walmart last month for ~$350 as a backup computer.[1] The Neo reinforced the wisdom of my purchase, as M1 has slightly better specs for less money.
[1] If the M4 Pro MacBook I am typing this on needs repair, I will use the M1 with a bootable clone of the M4's drive made with SuperDuper!.
I know that Walmart and Costco sold discounted M1 MacBook Airs, which why I used introductory prices.
> so I guess they started to have trouble sourcing components and came up with the Neo as their replacement.
There’s no indication Apple had any issues with getting components; they’re have problems with sourcing more expensive components.
Apple tends to be very deliberate with products; this isn’t a replacement for something else.
In fact, there was an article stating unlike some other laptop manufacturers, Apple’s prices aren’t expected to rise because their buying power and having contracts in place [1].
A low-cost MacBook using an iPhone process has been rumored for at least a year.
I’m sure Apple has wanted to create a low-cost Mac laptop (the base Mac mini was already $499) for a long time, regardless of what previous models have done.
They waited until they could do it in alignment with Apple’s brand, going back to Steve Jobs saying during the netbook hysteria: “We don’t know how to build a sub-$500 computer that is not a piece of junk. [1]”
And to their credit the Mac Neo is not a piece of junk.
I wouldn’t "way cheaper".
A baseline Neo with 256GB SSD is $599 vs the first M1 MacBook Air with 256GB SSD was $999 ($1,251.09 in 2026 dollars)
A Neo with 512GB SSD is $699 vs the M1 MacBook Air with 512GB SSD was $1249--that's $1,568.38 in 2026 dollars.
So this is a big deal; the Neo is the first Apple Silicon MacBook where the starting price is less than $999.