During the earnings call held today, Asus co-CEO S.Y. Hsu responded to Apple’s introduction of the “affordable” MacBook Neo and its implications for the PC industry. Here’s his statement.
## ’Numerous discussions have taken place regarding how to rival this product’
On the brink of the official release of the MacBook Neo, Asus co-CEO S.Y. Hsu commented on Apple’s forthcoming device during his company’s earnings call.
According to PCMag, the executive addressed the “astonishing” price of the MacBook Neo, suggesting that the product is disrupting the PC market:
> “Historically, Apple’s pricing has always been on the higher side, so for them to introduce a highly affordable product is certainly a shock to the whole industry. (…) Indeed, across the entire PC ecosystem, numerous discussions have emerged about how to compete with this product.”
Conversely, Hsu raised doubts about the MacBook Neo’s capability to manage heavily demanding workloads. From PCMag:
> Despite the competitive challenge, Hsu contended that the MacBook Neo might have restricted appeal. He noted the device’s 8GB of “unified memory,” or its RAM, highlighting that customers cannot upgrade it.
>
> He characterized the MacBook Neo as a “content consumption” device, comparable to an iPad. “This contrasts with the usage of a conventional notebook,” which can manage more compute-intensive operations, Hsu stated.
## 9to5Mac’s perspective
While Hsu’s general reaction to the new MacBook Neo resonates with responses we’ve observed from the PC landscape, his comments regarding its performance and restricted productivity functions are reminiscent of Steve Ballmer’s notorious early rejection of the iPhone.
From our own review of the MacBook Neo, alongside various other reviews released earlier today, it’s evident that the device can handle productivity tasks that exceed basic content consumption. This applies to the iPad as well.
However, he is correct to emphasize the device’s non-upgradable 8GB of RAM as a significant drawback, possibly only second to the slow SSD speeds pointed out by The Verge in its analysis.
Nonetheless, framing it as a limited content consumption device might reflect more about how a PC manufacturer might approach creating a budget laptop than about the actual capabilities of the MacBook Neo.