Speculation over the last year that Apple would release a MacBook below the MacBook Air powered by an iPhone chip was put to rest last week. Apple tried us to a few surprises, aside from the name, but most surprising is the price. For the price of a Mac Mini, buyers can pick up a portable Mac, and it doesn't have to be grey!
The whole point of the Mac Mini was to be affordable by removing the bundle—no keyboard, mouse or monitor. And since the Neo includes all three, the question is, could Apple release a Mac Neo desktop for less than either the MacBook Neo or Mini? And would they?
Well let's look at what such a Mac is could be. The Neo ships with 8GB of memory and either 256 or 512GB of storage—that would seem like the minimum, although more memory would have been nice. It would need to have similar ports. We can compare the Mac Neo with another product in Apple's lineup, the Apple TV. For $149 (the higher storage model) you get a compact A-series powered computer with 128GB of storage, 4GB of memory, and an HDMI port as well as wi-fi and ethernet, plus it ships with a remote that you can buy separately for $59.
The Mac Neo would likely need at least one USB-C port—two if they want to avoid any comparisons with the single-port MacBook. But the Mini and Apple TV have a dedicate port for the power cable, yet Apple does have a tradition of moving the power supply (and ethernet) to a separate box—this would slim the Neo desktop down, as would removing the ethernet port (Apple could always sell a dongle). They could even reuse the USB-C power supply from the Neo to keep the heat away from the case or stick with standard cable the Mini and Apple TV uses. Of course using the USB-C power supply would use up a port, and you really can't run the desktop Neo on battery. Let's not forget the audio jack currently on both the Mini and Neo—let's not give Apple the courage to remove that even if bluetooth and AirPlay would be good substitutes.
Basically we're adding two USB-C ports to something the size of the Apple TV, and possibly adding an audio jack, removing the ethernet port and pushing the power off board. This could be configured with one USB-C and the HDMI port around back and the second USB-C port up front beside the audio jack—or all ports in the back. At a minimum the processor would be upgraded to at least match the MacBook Neo, a boost over the Apple TV.
This should be something Apple could sell for $299 or $349 to start, priced between the MacBook Neo and the Apple TV. Pretty easy to pencil out and a logical product. Of course that doesn't mean Apple would build it in the first place.
For starters, who is this Mac for? The MacBook Neo isn't likely going to supplant Chromebooks in education, and schools are unlikely willing to return to desktop computers. Higher education customers are even more geared towards portables. It's a desktop computer, it'll need to be on a desktop. Or under a TV. In fact this could essentially be an Apple TV Pro—not for productivity but games! (Insert needless handwringing about how Apple ignores the gaming market).
Why should Apple even do this? Simple, growth. Apple needs to keep growing their marketshare, keep growing their revenue. Who knows if there is even an equivalent PC product category, possibly this market is owned by the Raspberry Pi, but if there are customers for such an affordable Mac, it's worth giving them the option. Adding more Mac customers keeps people in the eco-system and most importantly, buying services.
Maybe we'll see Apple try an experiment as they did with the M1 MacBook Air—start selling the previous Mini (or left over M4 Mini stock as soon as they upgrade the product to M5) in some retail channel and see if there's interest. Price it at $449 or $499—cheaper than the current model with a similar discount as the M1 MacBook Air. Maybe it'll sell, and if not, the inventory is cleared. Or Apple could just keep selling the current M4 Mac Mini until it's finally sold out and they can finally usher in the M5.