Apple (AAPL.US) enters the affordable PC battlefield! MacBook Neo may sell 5 million units this year, and Google and Microsoft are expected to be impacted.

Apple’s brand-new entry-level laptop, MacBook Neo, has officially gone on sale on Wednesday. Given the market’s initial response to this low-cost device, industry analysts believe this may just be the start of the tech giant’s further push into the entry-level market.

Last week, Apple unveiled the MacBook Neo, featuring four vibrant color options, an aluminum metal body design, a 13-inch Liquid Retina display, and prices starting at RMB 4,599. The MacBook Neo is powered by Apple’s A18 Pro processor, previously used in iPhone 16 Pro, and uses a fanless design for complete silence in operation. With this cheaper computer, Apple aims to target Chromebook and lower-end Windows users, as well as people who may want a MacBook but find the price hard to afford.

Guo Minghao, an analyst at Tianfeng International Securities, said that the next-generation MacBook Neo (which he calls Neo 2) may not come with a touchscreen, even though he originally thought it would. Guo Minghao added that although the MacBook Neo only entered “small-volume production” in December last year (with volume production coming three months later than expected), this year’s shipments may still be around 4.5 million to 5 million units—“for a single laptop model, this remains a very strong figure.”

Guo Minghao believes that MacBook Neo’s shipment momentum this year should remain stable for two reasons: back-to-school season and holiday shopping demand, and because of storage chip price factors, competitors may not be able to match it on price before the end of the first half of next year. “Therefore, starting from the second quarter of 2026, there may be more laptop models that begin raising prices due to rising storage costs, making them harder to compete with Neo.”

Amit Daryanani, an analyst at Evercore ISI, said that the MacBook Neo, with a starting price of $599 ($499 for education users), helps fill the “gap” in Apple’s MacBook product lineup, enabling it to make a strong push into the education market, where Google (GOOGL.US) Chromebooks and Microsoft (MSFT.US) Surface devices are popular.

In a report to clients, Daryanani wrote: “The launch of MacBook Neo gives Apple a more clearly defined position in the mid-range PC market, where it will face more intense competition from traditional PC OEM vendors. In addition, Neo further strengthens Apple’s ‘flywheel effect,’ drawing more price-sensitive consumers into the Mac ecosystem, and deepening cross-device interaction through integrated features with the iPhone (such as Handoff). This may ultimately drive growth in more hardware and services revenue.”

Samik Chatterjee, a JPMorgan analyst, agreed, saying that MacBook Neo will allow Apple to “significantly” increase its share in the computer market and compete with Chromebooks and Windows devices. Chatterjee explained: “We believe that MacBook Neo will enable Apple to significantly increase market share because the lower-priced segment typically corresponds to a larger sales volume. In addition, MacBook Neo uses the A18 Pro chip—which also drives the iPhone 16 Pro series—and it already has a mature supply chain, which helps move new product production and delivery forward smoothly.”