The $600 MacBook Neo just landed like a bomb in the PC market, and the industry's biggest players are scrambling. On Asus' latest earnings call, CFO Nick Wu admitted the Neo and its aggressive pricing were "certainly a shock to the entire market" - a stunning confession considering the company knew Apple was working on the device since 2025. The admission reveals what many suspected: PC makers heard the rumors but didn't take them seriously enough, and now they're caught flat-footed as Apple rewrites the entry-level laptop playbook.
Apple just changed the rules of the laptop game, and the PC industry's reaction has been a masterclass in being caught unprepared. The MacBook Neo - a $600 laptop powered by an A18 Pro chip originally designed for iPhones - is now shipping, and competitors are publicly admitting they didn't see this coming, despite having months of warning.
On Asus' Q4 2025 earnings call, CFO Nick Wu made a remarkable admission. The Neo and its "aggressive entry-level pricing" were "certainly a shock to the entire market," according to the earnings call transcript. But here's the kicker: Wu also disclosed that Asus had "some knowledge" of Apple developing the Neo back in 2025. The rumor mill had been churning for months about a MacBook with an iPhone chip, yet the company that makes some of Windows' most popular laptops apparently didn't prepare for what was coming.
The Neo represents Apple's most aggressive pricing move in the laptop space in years. At $600, it undercuts the standard MacBook Air by $400 while delivering performance that early reviews suggest punches well above its price class. The A18 Pro chip inside was designed for the iPhone 16 Pro, but Apple's repurposing it here shows the company's silicon design prowess - and its willingness to use that advantage to attack market segments it previously ignored.
For PC makers like Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo, this is a nightmare scenario. The sub-$700 laptop market has been their bread and butter, where Windows machines dominate through sheer variety and competitive pricing. Now Apple's walking in with a device that offers the MacOS ecosystem, legendary build quality, and Apple Silicon efficiency at a price point that was supposed to be safe territory.
