Apple sets the new entry price for the iPhone and MacBook at $599

New York.- The magic entry price for Apple seems to be $599, the price at which both the MacBook Neo laptop and the iPhone 17e phone debut, both products announced this week and available from March 11. For years, the most economical way to enter the Mac range was a $999 laptop, so the price of the new laptop - which features a 13-inch screen and a body that weighs only 1.2 kg - is historically low for the bitten apple company and even surprised experts by lowering the cost of its entry-level model by almost 50%. For its part, the price of the "affordable" iPhone 17e phone is the same as that of last year's model. This decision responds to a strategic move to protect its dominance in the global market and seeks to attract users in a context of rising supply chain costs and a shortage of memory chips.

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The new MacBook Neo stands out for its colorful design (it will be available in silver, indigo, pink "blush" and the new "citrus" green) and a battery life of up to 16 hours. However, the low price comes with technical sacrifices. The Neo is equipped with the A18 Pro chip, the same processor that brought the iPhone 16 Pro to life, instead of the M-series chips used in the latest and most expensive models. Although it is compatible with artificial intelligence functions (Apple Intelligence), it lacks a backlit keyboard and its connectivity is limited to a single external monitor. Apple offers a variant for $100 more that doubles the storage to 512 GB and includes a Touch ID fingerprint reader. With this new, more economical model, Apple seeks to compete with Google's Chromebooks and entry-level Windows devices, devices that are extremely popular among students and first-time buyers. Mac revenue fell nearly 7%, to $8.39 billion, in the holiday quarter compared to the previous year, missing analysts' expectations of approximately $9 billion in sales.