Apple (AAPL) stock has gained about 11% in the past year, at the time of writing, Thursday morning, March 5, according to Yahoo Finance. Meanwhile, the SPDR S&P 500 index (SPY) is up almost 19% in the same period.
Lagging behind the S&P 500 isn’t exactly a good result for the company. However, it isn’t a measure of the company’s value, but of sentiment. The artificial boom has heavily inflated the price tags of some AI-heavy stocks, while Apple has been seen as an AI laggard.
Despite this, the stock gained more over the past year than some big tech companies that are spending ridiculous sums on AI.
Companies making major AI investments:
- Microsoft (MSFT) is up a little more than 4% in the same period.
- Amazon (AMZN) is up about 6.4%.
- Meta (META) is up slightly above 4%.
Read the article “Apple stock price swing with $143B record” by TheStreet’s Aparajita Chatterjee for a recap of Apple’s Q1 report.
Apple doesn’t need AI to disrupt the market, and the company’s competitors know this. The launch of its latest laptop line will prove it.
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Apple launches MacBook Neo with a starting price of $599
Apple unveiled MacBook Neo on March 4, with a starting price of $599.
Some people will think, “They announced a new laptop, what’s the big deal? How is this a game-changer?”
To understand why this is a pivotal moment, we need to examine the market segment this laptop targets and how the release timing gives Apple an incredible advantage.
This is the first time Apple is offering a laptop in this “cheap laptop” price bracket. According to IMARC Group’s research, laptops priced between $500 and $1,000 dominate the market. Apple is only now entering this segment, and it is bound to cause disruption.
Related: Top analyst revamps Apple stock price target
It is easy to see that many people who like Apple as a brand but couldn’t afford its laptops might buy one solely for the branding.
When we look at the specification, we discover that Apple has carefully chosen the hardware to avoid cannibalizing MacBook Air sales while delivering the Apple experience at the lowest price yet.
The most important differentiation factor is that Neo is limited to just 8GB of soldered (non-replaceable, non-upgradeable) unified system memory. It is strange to see a new laptop line launching in 2026 with just 8GB of RAM.
Many people will be turned off by that number, and I totally get that. I am writing this on a ThinkPad with 32GB of RAM. However, do most potential buyers need more than 8GB of RAM?
I think 8GB should be enough for most people; this is not a gaming machine or a video editing workstation. The primary use cases are web browsing, writing, and light photo editing. An exception might be if you have a habit of keeping several dozen tabs open in your browser.
That being said, there are many reasons this laptop is far superior to what competitors offer.
Microsoft and PC laptop makers have created a perfect opportunity for Apple
Microsoft ended its support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025.
By making Windows 11 require a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip, Microsoft has ensured that hundreds of millions of PCs aren’t compatible with it.
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Many people who run Windows 10 on machines that are able to be upgraded to Windows 11 do not want to upgrade. Microsoft has been receiving backlash for its AI-heavy focus for quite some time, and I covered one of these instances of user outrage in my article “Windows president told ‘Stop this nonsense. No one wants this’.”
But you don’t have to believe me, or users raging on X.
Here is what Jeffrey Clarke, Vice Chairman and COO of Dell, had to say about this during the Q3 earnings call in November 2025: “We have not completed the Windows 11 transition. In fact, if you were to look at it relative to the previous OS end-of-service, we are 10, 12 points behind at that point with Windows 11 than we were the previous generation.”
“If memory serves me right, the installed base is roughly $1.5 billion – 1.5 billion units,” he continued. “We have about 500 million of them capable of running Windows 11 that haven’t been upgraded. And we have another 500 million that are four years old that can’t run Windows 11.”
I covered Dell’s struggles to successfully market its laptops as AI-ready in my article “Bank of America resets Dell stock forecast after private meeting.”
This is why Apple’s timing is almost perfect, as there are still hundreds of millions of devices that haven’t been migrated or replaced, and many people are now ready to give macOS a chance after seeing where Windows is headed.
The Apple advantage
I bet some readers are asking themselves, “Is the writer a crazy Apple fan, hyping this device?”
Not at all. I would not buy an Apple device; remember, I am writing this on a Lenovo machine.
I am a big believer in the right to repair and the right of ownership. For me, an SSD drive being soldered to the motherboard is enough of a reason not to buy the device. The RAM not being upgradable makes it even worse.
Most people are not bothered by those facts. When I am recommending someone what laptop to buy, I explain what I consider the problems, but I also try to put myself in the place of the person buying and what is really important to them.
What people get with this laptop is a beautiful aluminum chassis that simply feels better than any cheap, plastic laptop in the same price bracket.
The device also sports a much better screen than the competition, with a resolution of 2408 by 1506 pixels and a brightness of 500 nits. PC laptops that go for $600 typically have screens with a resolution of 1920 by 1200 pixels and 300 nits of brightness.
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The Magic Keyboard is there, albeit without a backlight, and Touch ID is only available on the more expensive version with the 512GB SSD. Nonetheless, the keyboard will offer a better experience than any PC in that category, because if you want a good keyboard on a PC, you have to buy a more expensive business machine, not a consumer device.
What you don’t get, and shouldn’t want to get, is noise. The laptop is powered by an iPhone chip. It doesn’t have fans, and Apple says the battery lasts up to 16 hours. The chip is powerful enough for most tasks you’d do on a machine with just 8GB of RAM, and according to Apple, it is more powerful in single-threaded tasks than M1.
M1 blew the competition away when it launched in 2020, and it is still plenty strong today. The laptop has a weak port selection, but people who have more than one monitor probably aren’t after this machine anyway.
A laptop that can be put in a bag safely
In case you didn’t already know, you can’t just close your PC laptop without shutting it down and then put it in a carrying bag. You risk destroying your device, and you can thank Microsoft for it.
According to Dell, Microsoft introduced “modern standby” in 2012.
Modern standby replaced S3 deep sleep. In fact, many modern CPUs no longer support S3 deep sleep.
The problem is that this means laptops on modern standby often aren’t really in sleep mode, and the fan needs to keep working. By putting the laptop in the bag, you risk choking the fan and overheating the device, potentially damaging it.
For a deeper dive into the problem, I recommend watching Linus Tech Tips’ video titled “Microsoft is Forcing me to Buy MacBooks – Windows Modern Standby.”
Obviously, MacBook Neo doesn’t have such a problem. Microsoft and PC CPU/Laptop manufacturers have turned a perfectly normal thing, like putting a laptop in a carrying bag, into something to worry about.
I was rooting for this laptop to launch since the rumors about it started, since I see it as a very necessary punch in the face (and potentially a knockout) for Microsoft, Lenovo, Dell, HP, AMD, Intel, Qualcomm, and others.
They now have to go back to the drawing board.
Related: History of Apple: Company timeline and facts
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