$\"John$ <\/p>\n

Image: Apple\/Youtube<\/span>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only Tuesday morning but there\u2019s already blockbuster news this week that will change the course of Apple events.<\/p>\n

And that is that the third macOS Tahoe beta is available to developers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ha-ha! No, that\u2019s not it. It\u2019s that in the middle of writing this column that was going to be about the MacBook Neo<\/a>, Apple announced that Tim Cook would be turning over the reins to John Ternus as of September 1st of this year,<\/a> and now the Macalope has to somehow make what he\u2019s already written make sense in the context of this executive change. This is extremely rude timing on the part of Apple. Very inconsiderate. The Macalope sleeps a full third of the day. Is it so hard to issue big announcements while he\u2019s asleep?<\/p>\n

Anyway, let\u2019s see if we can take the ingredients on hand and make a meal.<\/p>\n

As the Macalope noted last week<\/a>, sales of the MacBook Neo are exceeding expectations. This creates a bit of a problem for Apple as it uses binned iPhone A18 Pro processors for the Neo so it can\u2019t easily spin up production to get more.<\/p>\n

Writing for 9to5Mac, Michael Burkhardt has an option for Apple<\/a>: expand the type of chips it puts into the MacBook Neo to include the base level instead of just the Pro.<\/p>\n

Who says you can\u2019t bin \u2018em all?<\/p>\n

The Macalope believes he is legally obligated to say \u201cHey-yo!\u201d after a joke like that so\u2026<\/p>\n

Hey-yo!<\/p>\n

Let it never be said he was not in full compliance with the law.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In addition to hardware changes, Apple could just spin up more production and sacrifice a little margin, it could raise the price a little, or it could do nothing and keep the MacBook Neo as a hard-to-get item.<\/p>\n

But the bigger point is, a product selling better than you thought it would is not in any way a bad thing<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n
$\"Macalope\"$
\n
If you\u2019d like to receive regular news and updates to your inbox, sign up for\u00a0<\/strong>our newsletters<\/strong><\/a>, including The Macalope and<\/strong> Apple Breakfast<\/strong><\/a>, David Price\u2019s weekly, bite-sized roundup of all the latest Apple news and rumors.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Foundry<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
For funsies, let\u2019s see how the esteemed competition is handling this. Surely Microsoft and its allies have some great ideas on how to counter Apple\u2019s cheapest laptop ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cMicrosoft reveals major price increases for all Surface PCs as RAM crisis continues: Flagships now $500 more expensive than at launch\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
Uhhh, okay, that\u2019s one way to react to the Neo. It\u2019s not a good<\/em> way, but it is one way.<\/p>\n
As Windows Central<\/em>\u2019s Zac Bowden opines: \u201cThat\u2019s insane.\u201d Already any of Apple\u2019s options from spending more to doing absolutely nothing seem better in comparison.<\/p>\n
\n
But, wait, that\u2019s not the only thing Microsoft is doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cMicrosoft counters the MacBook Neo with freebies for students\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n
What are those freebies?<\/p>\n
\n
\u202612 months of free Microsoft 365 Premium and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Cool. Cool. You know, you should throw in a \u201cStudy Hard\u201d poster while you\u2019re at it to really round out the package.<\/p>\n
Color the Macalope jaded but he doesn\u2019t think this bundle is really going to move the needle much on sales.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Since we now have to tie this back to John Ternus taking over as Apple CEO (thanks again, Apple), this isn\u2019t the only parting gift Tim Cook has given the incoming top dog.<\/p>\n
According to a recent survey<\/a>, almost four times as many Android users indicated they were considering switching to the iPhone as the reverse. iPhone loyalty was up to 96 percent as Tim Cook gets ready to pass on his \u201cI \u2764\ufe0fCUSTOMER SAT\u201d t-shirt to John Ternus. Android loyalty was high, but a full ten points lower.<\/p>\n
Suffice it to say, John Ternus is not inheriting your father\u2019s Apple. First of all, your father never ran Apple, Scott. All those stories he told you about his trials and tribulations running Apple in the mid-1990s? He made all that up. Your father sold orthopedic footwear.<\/p>\n
But Ternus is getting an Apple that is pretty much at the top of its game while showing a few signs of not keeping its eyes on the fundamentals (at least it\u2019s not the only one<\/a>). If there was a short bit of advice the Macalope could cram in here at the end to give to Ternus to make this column appear to be well thought out in advance it\u2019s this: make things people want. That\u2019s it. Steve Jobs would tell you that people don\u2019t know what they want until you show it to them. That\u2019s often true, but AI by and large is not it. While it has uses, no one has been pleasantly surprised by a startling new technology that often seems best suited to provide CEOs with another excuse to lay off workers.<\/p>\n
The MacBook Neo is a cheap but capable entry-level computer to the Mac ecosystem that the company built with parts that fell on the factory room floor. This benefits customers and<\/em> Apple. Start there and see where it takes you.<\/p>\n
\u2026<\/p>\n
\n
That works, right?<\/p>\n
As a closing line?<\/p>\n
Yeah, that seems good.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/body><\/div>\n
\n
\n\t\t
\n\t\tAuthor: The Macalope<\/a>, Contributor, Macworld\t\t<\/h3>\n
\n
\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The Macalope is a longtime observer of the tech industry and Apple. In addition to being a mythical beast, the Macalope is not an employee of Macworld. As a result, the Macalope is always free to criticize any media organization. Even ours.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Image: Apple\/Youtube It\u2019s only Tuesday morning but there\u2019s already blockbuster news this week that will change the course of Apple events. And that is that the third macOS Tahoe beta is available to developers. Ha-ha! No, that\u2019s not it. It\u2019s that in the middle of writing this column that was going to be about the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":909358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[149872,149120],"tags":[149871,149870],"class_list":["post-909357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-inheriting","category-ternus","tag-inheriting","tag-ternus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=909357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/909358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}