The new MacBook Neo will not mark a pivot in Apple's reigning product strategy, with a bucketload of high-end, Ultra-category products still in the pipeline, as per the tidbits gleaned from Mark Gurman's latest Power On newsletter.
The MacBook Neo, despite expanding Apple's TAM, will not change the Cupertino giant's fixation on high-end products
According to Gurman, a number of stars had to align for Apple to launch the MacBook Neo, including Apple's increasing reliance on its own silicon instead of Intel chips, a wide-ranging overhaul of the macOS to allow it to run on ARM processors, and the A18 Pro chip achieving the economies of scale needed for a low-end laptop.
By all accounts, Apple appears to have succeeded in unlocking an entire new TAM via the MacBook Neo, which now sits at a 45 percent discount to the latest MacBook Air. For comparison, the Apple Watch SE entails a discount of 38 percent relative to the Apple Watch Series 11, while the iPhone 17e is only 25 percent cheaper than the base iPhone 17.
Even so, Gurman believes that the MacBook Neo does not constitute a pivot in Apple's overall philosophy, with the Cupertino giant expected to double down on high-end "Ultra" products from hereon.
The absolute beast in this category of upcoming "Ultra" products is, of course, the iPhone Fold, which is expected to debut later this year with a price tag north of $2,000, a massive inner display, and a host of new tech, including in-display sensors, COE or Color Filter on Encapsulation, and a modified hinge mechanism that nearly eliminates display crease.
Next up, we have the next-gen AirPods Pro that are rumored to come with a camera to power Siri's Visual Intelligence features and might launch later this year. These AirPods Pro would complete a troika of AI-powered devices from Apple, which include smart glasses and an AI pendant, to take on Meta's early lead with its Ray-Ban smart glasses.
We also have the upcoming high-end MacBook Pro that would sport a touch-enabled OLED screen and entail a price hike of around 20 percent relative to the just-launched M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro devices. According to Gurman, Apple might adopt the "Ultra" label for the OLED MacBook.
Of course, Apple did just launch another Ultra-category product: the Studio Display XDR, which eschewed the "Ultra" moniker in favor of the XDR label to highlight its enhanced capabilities. Finally, Apple might also launch a foldable OLED iPad and pin the "Ultra" label on the device.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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