First Ring Daily 1934: Mactastic

Well, that new inexpensive Mac is now on sale.

And according to Tim Cook, Twitter account, he says this is a very narrow thing.

But he said, Mac, just had its best launch week ever for first time Mac customers.

We love seeing the enthusiasm.

This is a subset of a subset.

But an important one, but it's good.

No, that's good.

I've said this before, like, I don't know why the Mac hasn't ever crossed 10% used to share.

I know that the, you know, they're premium computers.

So the base price has basically been a thousand bucks for a while.

You know, in, in a, sorry, in the education market a little bit less.

But that's part of the reason why I'm kind of confused by it.

Because there's this halo effect, obviously, from the iPhone, primarily,

but the whole ecosystem, like, you would think even within the piece,

just the broader PC market, like the premium part of that has to be a pretty good size.

Like, how do they not have, I don't know, 15 or 20% like it seems like they would.

So if this computer is how they get there, that's great.

Because I, me, this computer is like a, the sale price car that's out in the corner

a lot that gets people come into the dealership and then they buy the one that actually makes sense.

Because the one that actually makes sense is a MacBook Air, you know, it's too bad.

It's a little more expensive now, you know, because they think the, and it's also kind of weird.

They're around a lot of upgrades in the Neo, right?

I think you can get a finger reader and well, yeah.

I mean, look, there's, there's always a $400 solution to a problem if you're an Apple user.

And in this case, it's, you want an Apple watch and you can sign in that way.

And that it does make it easier and that you could make that case.

And that's fine.

But I, it's the, the RAM storage storage is less, but the RAM, especially like if you just,

every once in a while, you need a bigger screen and have to type.

It gigs 256 is actually as terrible, but okay.

But the inability to go up 16 and then people will say, well,

that's because it's an A18 and it's like, well, that's because Apple chose that chip.

But they have every device they have now, iPhones, iPads, I don't know, a base iPad,

but iPad Air that have more than eight gigs of RAM.

So they could have put in a 19 in it, right?

Like they probably will next year.

And then there will be an upgrade, right?

And then that thing will also, I think, fit more cleanly into the lineup

because there's a big jump between, what is it, 599, 699 and 1199?

I mean, always they're not a 16 gig and then a pair of bite option in there to eat,

you know, to fill that gap, right?

In the price spectrum.

Well, that's going to be the MacBook Neo Air.

Well, or just the, yeah, or just the Neo really, right, Neo2 or whatever.

I'd also, you know, they could reach, so this is good for younger people, I guess.

And I'm not like an active college.

I wouldn't give this to someone going to college.

You want them to have an air.

They need a computer, right?

But younger people who are not using computers as much or whatever, that's fine.

I'm sure that exists.

But, you know, there's not a big audience out there.

And it's like people like me, or where I'm heading, which is like older people

who have light computing needs.

But the one thing the Neo doesn't do for them, well, one of the things I should say,

because I still think the RAM thing is a problem.

But it's a bigger screen, you know, if you look at like the iPad,

there's an iPad mini and an iPad.

There's an iPad air in two sizes.

There's an iPad Pro in two sizes.

There's a MacBook Pro in two sizes.

A MacBook Air in two sizes.

There's a MacBook Neo in one small size.

Like, why does small equate to cheap, you know, like it's kind of weird?

Like, it should be a, you know, get another hundred dollar upgrade,

would be a, I don't know what you want to call it, a 15 inch screen, you know.

I think we got there.

I, you know, if this is popular enough, it warranted.

I mean, Apple will start adding options, why not?

They'll think I have all the confidence they will figure out how to raise the price.

And Tim Cook has done a lot of things for Apple.

But one of them is he's dramatically expanded their product rates.

Yeah, he's like, if you, if you were to go back to the day,

you can see, oh, and compare it to today, yikes, you know, like, it's an explosion of,

are there three different Apple pencils right now?

Or maybe I don't know what to do.

I don't feel like breaking my brain.

What's the matrix of compatibility with Apple pencil to iPad or whatever is?

I don't know, you know, it's complicated.

Yeah, they also haven't been super consistent in their naming convention either, right?

The cheaper Apple Watches, the SE, they have an E phone now,

and then they have a Neo on the map.

Yeah.

So they don't have an E now.

There you go.

Maybe that's true.

Does that matter?

I don't know if that matters.

That's a good point.

No, it matters.

You know what, we can't go back to the four grid thing, right?

Remember, see jobs like we have two consumer products, two pro-sumers, no, whatever.

It's no, I'm not, no one would ever suggest we have to go back to that.

But aside from the sheer simplicity of it, the point, part of the point was,

it wasn't so much that there were four things, but they were obvious, you know.

Like the, we are things slotted in made sense.

The first time we lost the script and Steve Jobs was still around, obviously.

He said this was the, you know, the iPad is, you know, the question has arisen.

Is there room in the market for a product between a phone and a laptop?

I'm like, the question has arisen.

Like, where did it arise in Apple's Board of Directors?

You know, like, what are you talking about?

Like, but it's a kind of a weird product positioning.

But no, Steve, I mean, Tim Cook every day asks.

The question has arisen.

Is there room for, you know, a 117th product that can sit between the, you know,

phone and the computer and the answers?

Yes, you know, so the answer is always yes.

All right.

Well, Brad, Brad is so distracted today.

Just, oh, is everyone, anyone wasn't paying attention all week?

Brad is flying to Detroit and then London tonight.

And he's super, super excited about it.

Oh, my God. I am, yeah.

The amount, yeah, the, the nerves are at an all time high.

But it's going to be great, you know, not the, not the flight part.

But the, you know, the trip's going to be good.

The trip will be good.

Deflying it might put me under.

No.

There's no way around that, but

till they do teleportation.

I keep pulling Brad up.

She should have bought it in the Macbook, Liam.

So you get a product to your,

so put nothing.