Even before the MacBook Neo reviews were out, we predicted two things. One was that the 8GB RAM would be a bottleneck for the budget MacBook, and judging from the “review unit” videos, at least some of the creators, like MKBHD, were honest enough to let the people know that this isn’t a magic RAM that punches above its 8GB capacity.
The second thing we predicted was that the $599 MacBook Neo would challenge Windows PCs in the same price range, but it wouldn’t cause a considerable decline in Windows market share, as some believe. We didn’t arrive at that conclusion out of pure optimism; we just knew how the market would respond, and it turns out, we were right.
During ASUSTeK’s Q4 2025 earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Nick Wu replied to a question about Apple’s new budget MacBook Neo and its potential impact on the PC market. Wu acknowledged that the product had caught the attention of the entire ecosystem. In fact, he described Apple launching a $599 MacBook as “a shock to the entire market.”
But Wu’s more general point was not that Apple would suddenly dominate the PC industry. Instead, he suggested the opposite outcome.
According to ASUS, PC vendors, along with upstream partners like Microsoft, Intel, and AMD, are already discussing how to respond to Apple’s move. Wu said the industry is actively evaluating how to compete with the MacBook Neo, and that the PC ecosystem will ultimately launch competing products.
As we said months before its launch, the MacBook Neo may not destroy the Windows laptop market. But it could force the PC industry to build better machines at the same price point.
ASUS CFO says the MacBook Neo shocked the PC industry
At the company’s Q4 2025 earnings call, Yuanta Securities asked how ASUS views the impact on the 2026 PC market from Apple’s recently launched affordable version of the MacBook, the MacBook Neo. The answer was, in fact, given by Nick Wu, the Chief Financial Officer at ASUS, unlike the social media drama that said it was the CEO of ASUS.
Wu’s response was also far less dramatic than the headlines that followed.
“We heard about the MacBook Neo shipments coming online back in the second half of last year. We made some internal preparations, but after the product officially released, we found the specs to have some limitations”
Wu also made it clear that the MacBook Neo is not necessarily designed to replace the typical Windows productivity laptop.
According to the CFO, the device comes with 8GB of memory that cannot be upgraded, which may limit certain workloads. He suggested that Apple may have positioned the Neo more for content consumption.
And, of course, the statement that made all the headlines, making people think that the PC industry is in a state of panic:
“Given Apple’s historically very premium pricing, launching such an affordable product is certainly a shock to the entire market.”
The real message from ASUS is that the PC ecosystem will respond
The most interesting part of Wu’s response came when he discussed how the rest of the industry is reacting. According to him, Apple’s move is already being taken seriously across the PC ecosystem. Vendors and technology partners are actively discussing how to respond.
“I believe our PC vendors, including upstream vendors like Microsoft, Intel, and AMD, they’re all taking this very seriously, discussing how to compete with this product in the entire PC ecosystem.”
The CFO reassured investors that there are a lot of ongoing discussions about how the PC industry can compete with the Neo, and also mentioned that it’s not easy for users to suddenly switch from Windows to macOS. However, Wu concluded by saying that Windows OEMs will launch PCs that are similar to the MacBook Neo, which is definitely what excites me the most.
“the entire PC system will launch corresponding products to compete with Apple.”
What’s happening in the PC industry?
According to Gartner’s worldwide PC shipment estimates, the global market shipped roughly 270 million PCs in 2025. The market remains highly competitive, with several major manufacturers sharing global demand.
The estimated vendor market share for 2025 looks roughly like this:
- Lenovo – 27.2%
- HP – 21.3%
- Dell – 15.3%
- Apple – 9.2%
- ASUS – 6.9%
The most important takeaway here is that even after 6 years with excellent M-series chips, the MacBook Air, and the MacBook Pro that YouTubers rave about, Apple still represents less than 10% of the global PC market.
So, for the MacBook Neo to suddenly cause the death of Windows laptops in the already highly competitive $600 to $800 price range would be an overestimation.
Gartner estimates that global PC shipments grew about 9% year over year, as the market gradually recovers from the pandemic-era slowdown.
Several factors are contributing to this recovery:
- corporate PC refresh cycles
- Windows upgrade waves
- the rise of AI PCs
- continued demand for gaming hardware
In fact, the PC market is stabilizing again, but not for long, and not because of Apple.
The real pressure on PC vendors is not Apple, but the component prices
If there is one factor that is genuinely worrying PC manufacturers right now, it is the cost of components.
During the earnings call, ASUS executives discussed the rising cost of memory and other hardware components. Nick Wu explained that memory prices have already increased more than 100% between the fourth quarter and the first quarter, and shortages could persist for several years.
According to ASUS, supply constraints in the memory market could last until at least 2027, largely because semiconductor capacity expansion takes time.
Manufacturers are currently facing pressure from several directions:
- DRAM supply constraints
- massive demand from AI servers and data centers
- limited manufacturing expansion across the semiconductor industry
This means OEMs must constantly balance component costs and laptop pricing to remain competitive.
Why Apple entering this segment may actually help consumers
Many features that are now standard in Windows laptops became widespread after Apple introduced them first. High-resolution displays became common across Windows devices after Apple introduced Retina displays. Precision touchpads improved dramatically after the MacBook trackpad set new usability expectations. More recently, Apple Silicon accelerated interest in ARM-based laptops across the Windows ecosystem.
The MacBook Neo could trigger a similar effect in the budget segment.
Windows OEMs may introduce machines that deliver stronger value at the same magic $599 range as the MacBook Neo. The effect I’m hoping for is better design and build quality in the $600 range Windows PCs.
The fact is that there are already many Windows PCs in this price segment that offer much better value than the MacBook Neo, but what is lacking is Desirability.
My honest suggestion to PC manufacturers is to brand their products better. With a ton of laptops, multiple brands, numerous processor names and SKUs, people can’t be expected to remember which ones are the best for a price segment, and I’m not even talking about the budget segment.
For example, the Lenovo Yoga Pro 7i Aura Edition is an excellent piece of hardware, minus the awfully long name.
Years of competition in the $600 range have given us Windows laptops with excellent value, now the next part is figuring out a way to make them desirable like the MacBooks.
