What explains upmarket Apple’s low-priced MacBook? A chip crunch more than market opportunity

Budget-friendly” isn’t typically a descriptor you find next to “MacBook.” But priced at $599—$499 with a student discount—Apple’s new MacBook Neo is the least expensive laptop it has ever offered. Expect its four colourful variants to start gracing college campuses and coffee shops very soon.Apple’s strategy seems straightforward: A cheaper laptop puts it in direct competition with Google’s Chromebook, now a mainstay of classrooms globally, plus a whole universe of Windows-powered laptops. It could lock in the next generation of Apple laptop users.Yet Apple could have justifiably made that kind of move at any point in the Chromebook’s almost 15 years on the market.

Instead, Apple stayed firmly dedicated to its premium reputation and price point. A confluence of reasons made 2026 the right time for a cheaper MacBook. The Mac product line, which missed analysts’ expectations last quarter, needs a sales boost.

Increasingly, as more Americans worry about affordability, Apple is competing with itself. The market for refurbished Apple products is booming. Back Market, a leading marketplace that puts Apple products front and centre, reported last month that gross merchandise value rose 32% in 2025 compared with the previous year.

The market for old smartphones is growing faster than the one for new models and Apple products make up more than half of that demand. With belts tightened, what many consumers are saying is that they don’t mind using hardware that’s a little behind the curve. So now Apple is putting its older hardware into new products: The MacBook Neo runs on the A18 Pro chip first used in 2024’s iPhones.