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Apple’s 50th anniversary is more than a milestone for looking back at the company’s highs and lows; it's also an opportunity to examine where the company is now and where it could be going next.
The MacBook Neo is a quintessential example of how far Apple has come. The $599 laptop has sent shockwaves through the computing industry at a time everyone else is raising prices. And it's secret ingredient is Apple's own A18 Pro chip.
I sat down with two key Apple executives — senior vice president of worldwide marketing Greg ‘Joz’ Joswiak and senior vice president of hardware engineering John Ternus — to talk about the story behind the Neo and much more.
Article continues belowOur wide-ranging conversation also touches on the blurring lines between Macs and iPads, their thoughts on smart glasses as a category and Apple's unique "human" approach to AI. Here’s how these two titans are mining a 50-year legacy to fuel a new era of innovation.
How the MacBook Neo reinvented the budget laptop
The new MacBook Neo has sent shockwaves through the computing industry because it’s simply shocking the level of quality that you get for just $599. Unlike most budget Windows laptops, you get a sturdy aluminum design, a bright display and super long battery life. And the performance of the A18 Pro chip is surprisingly strong even though it’s paired with just 8GB of RAM.
Probably the biggest misconception is that the Neo is just a MacBook Air with features trimmed off. But for Joz the Neo is anything but a consolation prize.
“There’s so much new in the MacBook Neo,” said Joz. “We have a completely new trackpad design that I think is still better than any PC out there. We had to rethink how we made the enclosure, and how it all came together. We didn't lower the bar. We made an amazing, high-quality Mac at this incredible price point.”
The MacBook Neo is also a warning shot for Windows PC makers because it is nothing like today’s budget laptops you’ll find in Best Buy or Costco.
“The products in this space that (the Neo) is competing against, they're plastic. You can literally flex them,” said Ternus. “They're so cheap. Because what have they done? They just tried to cut a nickel, cut a quarter, cut a dollar. Everything to try to make it cheaper. Which is very different from making it a lower price and a high value, which was the approach we're taking.”
So why MacBook Neo? Why not just call it MacBook SE like Apple’s other value-priced products? Because Apple wanted to make it very clear that this was a new product.
“Look, you could even make an argument to just call it MacBook. But to do that would have left it without an identity,” said Joz. “So we did want to give it an identity, and we wanted something short and snappy, something that fit in with Air and Pro but we also wanted something to convey its newness. And Neo literally means new reinvention. And this is the reinvention of a low-price, high-value laptop.”
But while Apple is redefining what a Mac can cost, they are still holding a firm line on what a Mac actually is.
So are Macs and iPads merging? Not so much
Now that there are Macs powered by A series chips — and a touchscreen MacBook Pro is reportedly on the way as soon as this year — some are wondering if the lines between Macs and iPads are starting to blur.
Just look at iPadOS 26, which brings a ton of Mac-like features to iPads, from an improved multitasking Window system and familiar “stoplight” controls for apps to a revamped Files app. But if you ask Apple, Macs and iPads are still very distinct products.
“We’re always focused on ‘how do we make a given product better,’” said Ternus. “We’re always pushing. And we never think like, ‘well, what impact if we did something here would have on a product over here?’”
Just to clear up any ambiguity, Ternus says that despite the narratives that are out there that there has “never been this idea of mashing these two things together.”
But there are two things that are about to be mashed together at Apple: AI and wearables.
Apple glasses an ‘inevitability’?
While Apple’s Vision Pro has not been a commercial success, it does provide very tangible clues as to how an eventual pair of Apple Glasses will work. This includes the ability to pin multiple virtual apps in a real-world environment, as well as spatial widgets (whether it’s a weather widget on your fridge or a photos widget in your bedroom).
“Vision Pro reached into the future to show us how the digital world and the physical world could be combined,” said Joz.
However, while the Vision Pro has Apple Intelligence, it doesn’t offer features like Visual Intelligence. And all of Apple’s devices are waiting on Siri 2.0, which promises features like on-screen awareness, voice controlling apps, stringing together multiple commands and more. That will likely debut alongside iOS 27 and hopefully visionOS 27.
It will take this new-and-improved Siri to make the rumored Apple Glasses relevant, especially at a time when Meta is selling millions of Ray-Ban glasses with AI inside and Google and Samsung promise to release Android XR glasses this year powered by the extremely robust Gemini.
Apple could reportedly launch its first pair of Apple glasses as soon as the end of this year, but they might not go on sale until 2027. And it might be a few more years until we see Apple Glasses with a display and full visionOS integration. But speaking to Apple, it certainly seems like they're at least thinking about the possibilities.
“There's some inevitability to combining the digital and physical world,” said Joz. "That's what spatial computing was all about. I can't give you a timeline for when spatial becomes anything else, but you know it's an inevitability. Of digital and physical worlds coming together.”
Putting the ‘humanity’ in AI
Between ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, right now Apple is widely perceived as behind in the AI wars. And the new Siri (at least partially powered by Gemini) could very well help Apple play catch-up. But at the same time, Apple is reportedly opening up Siri so that it could connect to multiple AI apps. Think App Store but just for chatbots.
In the meantime, Apple is adamant that the AI race is still in the beginning stages, and that its approach is very different from the competition.
“We never think about shipping technology,” shared Ternus. “We always think about, ‘how can we leverage technology to ship amazing products and features and experiences for our users?’”
Ternus cited live translation on AirPods as an example of what Apple is trying to do with AI: Create better user experiences and therefore better products to sell.
“I love it when those things are happening and somebody doesn't even necessarily know that it's AI,” said Joz. “It's just better. We bring humanity to things. We make it so that you don't have to be a chatbot expert. We want the technology to come to you.”
Learning from Apple 'flops'
Lest you think that Apple believes it's infallible, I asked both Joz and Ternus about Apple flops that the company has learned the most from over the years. And, yes, Steve Jobs was okay with failure.
“We're not perfect. We're going to make mistakes along the way,” said Joz. “Steve talked about it. No one bats a thousand. But what you try to do is, when something doesn't go right, you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and figure out what are you going to do to change it?”
As iconic as the new initial 2008 MacBook Air was, it “didn’t sell very well” according to Joz. The $1,799 laptop wasn’t just pricey, it had a slow iPod-like hard drive and the Intel Core 2 Duo chip ran into thermal issues. The flip-down port door wasn’t a fan favorite either.
But Apple redesigned the Air in 2010 brought faster flash storage, more ports and an entry price of just $999. And now the MacBook Air is the most popular laptop in the world.
For Ternus, the Apple Maps launch in 2012 is the biggest initial flop that Apple turned into a positive. The app was widely criticized for giving the wrong directions or having inaccurate maps, but Apple rolled up its sleeves after a very public apology from Tim Cook.
“When we started out with maps, it was an ambitious undertaking. It was bumpy,” said Ternus. “But the team had just been over the years just pushing and pushing and pushing. And Apple Maps today is absolutely amazing. If you have the vision and you're persistent and you keep working at it, you can take something you know that has a rocky start and turn it into something great.”
Apple: The next 50 years
To sum up my interview with Joz and Ternus, I wanted to ask them about the one word that would define Apple for the next 50 years, and I got pretty different answers.
“For me, it's the same that described the first 50 years: human,” said Joz. “Which you might not expect in an era of AI, but I think that's what we do, right? We figure out how to bring humanity to things. So to me, the last 50 is gonna be like the next 50. It's all about humanity and putting people at the center of what we do.”
“I would say exciting,” said Ternus. “I'm just looking at where we're going and the capabilities that we have coming in the products we're thinking about. I could not be more excited.”
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