Mastodawn

Jason Snell is a great sparring partner to have in the blogging space, and he got me thinking about what I am actually trying to accomplish with my reviews. To me, it's about wearing a totally different hat than I do when analyzing the company day-to-day.

https://birchtree.me/blog/analyst-hat-comes-off-reviewer-hat-goes-on/

Analyst hat comes off, reviewer hat goes on

Jason Snell thought my MacBook Neo review missed the point of the product: But this entire conversation misses the most important thing about the MacBook Neo: It is sold in every Apple Store, on Apple’s website, and in every Apple sales channel. Most people won’t think to cruise

Birchtree

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Josh Calvetti ⛰2d ago

@matt_birchler the tricky thing to me is that this is a $600 laptop that is _easily_ found at $500. It's harder to find a refurb M2 Air at that price point, for what to the target audience will feel like "the same specs" on paper at least (ram and storage). The best thing going for the Neo is that educational price of $500, which I'd wager is most of the target audience anyways.

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Matt Birchler 2d ago

@joshcalvetti Yeah, I think the big thing for me is the part about no one is learning that the Neo is a thing from my review. They may not have considered an older Air, and they're all over Amazon with next day Prime shipping, so it's not like it's totally obscure.

Even with the potential $100-200 difference, I feel like Joanna Stern back in the day saying "but for $200 more you can get a MacBook Air and get something way better" 😂

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Josh Calvetti ⛰

That is fair! I think the $200 difference is easier to swallow going from $1100 to $1300. But that's almost a 50% increase on the effective base price of the Neo and if you're already looking at the cheapest model, I think the price is the leading feature.

I'm fascinated to see how sales go over the next year or two. This is unexplored terrain, which is thrilling.