Anil DashA lot of folks got very excited about the MacBook Neo — but Apple's been selling a machine with almost these exact specs for *years*. So what did the bright colors and rounded fonts really try to solve? Maybe Apple's embarrassment about serving Walmart customers. https://www.anildash.com/2026/03/08/neo-apple-embarassment/
Саша Морс, here we go again...@anildash the price. the price is what they were trying to solve.
@alexmorse I know it's too hard to click the link and read the article, but THEY HAVE BEEN SELLING A $599 LAPTOP WITH THESE SPECS FOR YEARS.
@anildash I read that dude, first thing. They haven't, they have been occasionally doing this as a refurb. Not available through the main channels, most people will never know.
@alexmorse It's not a refurb! It's a brand new product, that they've been selling both in-store and on the web, continuously, for years. Sorry to be aggro on this, I've had like 5 different people say the same thing. It only went out of stock on Walmart's website the week before last. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Apple-MacBook-Air-13-3-inch-Laptop-Space-Gray-M1-Chip-8GB-RAM-256GB-storage/609040889
@anildash you know what you're doing.
Nit@anildash @alexmorse MacRumors summarised the situation the other week when they noticed the stock ran dry pre-Neo announcement:
> Walmart first began selling the MacBook Air with the M1 chip for $699 in March 2024. The price later dropped to $649, then to $599, and briefly to as low as $549 during a Black Friday sale last year.
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/02/19/m1-macbook-air-out-of-stock-at-walmart/
Your article captures the optics of the situation well.
@anildash like, I find apple super annoying with their monopoly on the best hardware available for laptops, and shit-ass attention they give their operating system, but ffs, they have not been selling a laptop as capable at that price. This seems like a move that generally helps people that like using computers.
Philip@anildash Your comment about aiming at students sounds accurate when listening to the video. That voice actor is not the polished and professional style we’ve heard in others, but a young person with those adolescent cracks still in it.
The only odd part about that is it’s a slow, three and a half minute long video, rather than the punchy quick style I would expect to be marketed to a younger generation. But that means it doesn’t overwhelm either, which is nice.
The only odd part about that is it’s a slow, three and a half minute long video, rather than the punchy quick style I would expect to be marketed to a younger generation. But that means it doesn’t overwhelm either, which is nice.
Paul McAleer
Chad Marriotti@anildash I’m not sure Apple was embarrassed per se about the Walmart partnership. I always saw it as an experiment they ran to test the waters with a low cost machine without committing to building something new. The Walmart MacBook Air was only available in the US as far as I know. Now that they’ve run the experiment and obviously seen it as successful they can roll out a new machine worldwide that they can put their full marketing power behind and offer it through multiple channels.
Courtney
Fabien@anildash really wish you and other pundits weren’t as blind to the rest of the world. (There has never been a “Walmart MBA” outside of the USA.)
@fabienmarry I’m not blind to it! “For sale in fewer markets” is not the same thing as “doesn’t exist”. They didn’t just expand the old M1 Air to more markets — why? Do you get that point?
Alice GG@anildash for the average customer, the M1 air feels like you're buying a computer from 4 generations ago, while the neo feels like you're buying the new cool thing
Jason Anthony Guy@anildash Hi. Noticed a typo when quoting your piece:
“…that people _aren’tt_ even able…”