Apple finally unveiled the long-awaited entry-level MacBook, the MacBook Neo – and it was certainly worth the wait. The shiny new machine hit the most optimistic of price estimates, with a starting price of just $599.
There’s little doubt that the Neo will cannibalize some sales of the MacBook Air. Although it certainly involves compromises, it will be the right choice for many. However, my suspicion is that it will actually end up cannibalizing even more iPad sales …
For some uses, only an iPad will do
I should preface my argument by acknowledging that there are of course some use cases that can only sensibly be met by a tablet rather than a laptop. Examples include:
- Illustrating
- Some types of photo editing, heavy on brushwork
- Taking handwritten notes
- Annotating PDFs
- eBook reading
There are other forms of usage where an iPad may feel like a more natural form-factor. For example, reading digital magazines and some other forms of pure media consumption, like streaming video and passive web-browsing.
For many, an iPad is a laptop
But there are plenty of people who use an iPad and keyboard as a substitute laptop, and there are good historical reasons for that.
For a considerable time, a base model iPad and Bluetooth keyboard was very much cheaper than the least expensive MacBook Air. Many times, when non-techie friends asked me which Mac to buy, I’d ask them about their needs and very often end up recommending an iPad instead.
Even as iPads went upmarket, and the Magic Keyboard emerged as a very much pricier way to turn one into a pseudo-laptop, there were still benefits. The instant startup and battery-life were good arguments, and for a non-tech user who only ever uses one app at a time, an iPad is friendlier.
Apple Silicon Macs changed the landscape
But thing changed dramatically with the advent of Apple Silicon Macs. At that point, you could buy a MacBook Air with the same instant sleep/wake and the same battery-life. Not only this, but if you wanted a 13-inch screen, then the MacBook was actually cheaper than a 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard.
Of course, the iPad combo did give you the flexibility of having a pseudo laptop and a tablet in one purchase, but this was the point at which many of those who might previously have gone the iPad route instead opted for the MacBook Air.
The Neo moves the goalposts again
But now … The direct comparable with the Neo would be the 13-inch iPad Air with Magic Keyboard. That gets you the same size screen and the same quality keyboard. But if you match the 256GB storage, that comes in at $1,218 – literally twice the price of the Neo!
Of course you can go cheaper. As we noted yesterday, a base iPad and Magic Keyboard Folio comes in at the same price, although you are only getting an 11-inch screen for your money. You can also go even cheaper still by opting to pair the base model iPad with a third-party Bluetooth keyboard.
Whether any of these options make sense comes back to whether any of your usage is better suited to an iPad than a laptop. The flexibility of a 2-in-1 device cannot be denied. But if you were buying an iPad to spend its entire life being used as a laptop, then the MacBook Neo makes so much more sense from both a hardware and software perspective.
On the hardware side, the Neo is a lot neater than the clunkier combination of iPad and keyboard. Software-wise, iPadOS is substantially better than it used to be, but it still falls a very long way short of macOS.
So yes, the MacBook Neo will undoubtedly hit sales of the MacBook Air. But it will also hit iPad sales, and I have a suspicion the impact there will be more dramatic.
Do you agree, or do you think the iPad is safe even for those buying it as a pseudo laptop? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
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