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0 pointsShalomboy22d ago0 comments

This is such a better deal than I had growing up, Apple has to be taking a bath on these.

My high school required students to bring their own laptops to school when I started in 2010. Their shopping list suggested a MacBook Pro 13" with a case - I looked up "MacBook Pro price" for the first time in my life and just about walked into traffic. I didn't have a laptop to bring, I didn't want to bring the wrong kind of laptop and get double-screwed, so I bit the bullet and brought my car savings to the Apple store at the mall. A tremendously thoughtful sales rep told me "that's crazy, what school requires a MacBook Pro for 9th graders?", led me to the white unibody MacBooks on the side, and showed me that if I was buying it for school, I would get a discount on the laptop, a free inkjet printer (with ink!), and a free iPod Touch. This blew my mind. I thought it was a scam.

If I recall, that model of MacBook compared admirably against the same year's base model MacBook Pro 13 on a stat sheet but felt worse in hand. The MacBook Neo might actually bring up the rear on fit and finish at the expense of I/O and like, the questionable idea of running an A-series chip in a laptop running Tahoe and Chrome. I'm thrilled with this release.

0 comments

gandreani22d ago

Wow props to that sales rep. Not many would pass on the opportunity to sell something more expensive. I'm assuming they make some sort of (paltry) commission

articulatepang22d ago

I've had a similar experience with Apple Store employees many, many times: I walk in and vaguely describe what I want, and they steer me to the cheapest item they sell that could possibly meet my stated requirements.

I've also returned Apple products multiple times, once (recently) without the packaging, and once several days past the return window. They refunded me every time, no questions asked.

This makes me wonder if it's part of their training?

angulardragon0322d ago

It is - you’re not trained to upsell, only to give the customer what they need to do what they want.

Can be a little annoying (an employee actively tried to downsell my partner, even though they knew what they wanted), but overall it’s a nice practice.

1 more reply

newsclues22d ago

I worked in AppleCare and even we support techs had incentives to sell products.

Incentives matter more than training.

mixdup22d ago

That assumption would be wrong, and is why you get that kind of service from them. They may have targets of units sold but the real target is customer satisfaction and part of that is getting the customer into the right product so they're happy with it

kccqzy22d ago

Targets of units sold is a better metric than targets of total revenue, if a company is focused on customer satisfaction.

reilly300022d ago

They are a highly NPS driven operation. It makes sense: if you keep NPS above a certain threshold each sale begets additional sales from other customers. They manage people and places to what customers say in NPS surveys but don’t allow tolerate soliciting ratings. It’s simple, thus scalable.

dghlsakjg22d ago

Apple Store reps don't make commission.

My experience is that they are more focused on finding the right product for your needs. I've been there more than once where they happily downsell a customer.

goatforce522d ago

At some point in the 2000s I was buying a laptop at an Apple retail store, and just before we processed the transaction the salesperson asked if I was a student.

"Umm, I kinda look like a student."

"Good enough for me!"

I got a student discount.

bdavbdav22d ago

I’ve found that experience fairly common at our Apple Store. They’ve talked me down.

alsetmusic19d ago

> I'm assuming they make some sort of (paltry) commission

I worked at an Apple Store in 2010. There was no commission. I was a sales person at the time.

A college student had a bad interaction with one of our sales people and asked a manager to be helped by a female employee. We had none available and I was asked to assist her because I wasn't aggressive.

An asshole pathological liar, who later got fired, had tried to upsell her for no reason. The MacBooks with Intel processors were plenty fast. A 13" MacBook Pro was more expensive and offered no benefits for her student needs. I don't remember the rest other than she bought the MacBook, which was what she wanted when she came in.

tedmiston22d ago

no commission

newsclues22d ago

Does not mean no incentives.

alwillis22d ago

> This is such a better deal than I had growing up, Apple has to be taking a bath on these.

Apple doesn't sell anything where they're taking a bath; their margins have been high 30's to low 40's for many years. All of the technology in the Neo already existed; they didn't have to create anything new.

hobofan22d ago

To me the price seems to be so uncharactaristically low for Apple during a time where hardware prices are rising across the board that this almost feels like an attempt to try and capture the desktop market. During a time where Microsoft is fumbling with Windows on every front, having a competitively priced Macbook even for budget-concious people seems like a smart move that will pay off even without direct high margins.

aardvarkr22d ago

Capture the student market 100%. I’d buy one for my kids tomorrow. These machines are made with an iPhone chip so they’re going to be great at browsing the web and studying. I wouldn’t buy one for myself To do actual work on but for light users it’s the perfect device. Start them early and get them hooked in the ecosystem so they’re grow up and keep buying iPhones, Apple Watches, AirPods, and iPads.

layer822d ago

You have to compare with the base iPad, which costs only about half of the Neo. The Neo adds a keyboard (but without Touch ID for the base model), a larger screen but without touch, a somewhat better but also binned SoC (which the next iPad refresh will very likely also get) and more storage. It seems roughly in line, relative to the price difference.

1 more reply

AndriyKunitsyn22d ago

USB 2 in a type C form factor is pretty novel.

mjlee22d ago

Apple has been doing that on their base spec iPhones for the last 3 years.

kccqzy22d ago

How so? Buy a newish keyboard it has USB 1.1 in type C form factor.

KeplerBoy21d ago

Not at all. All cheap Android phones have USB 2.

einpoklum22d ago

> My high school required students to bring their own laptops to school when I started in 2010. Their shopping list suggested

How could they make you buy your own laptops? What if you didn't have one? ... Was that a private school maybe?

seb120422d ago

Pretty common in Australia, public and private schools. If you can't afford it, some schools have loan laptops.

716dpl21d ago

Apple Computer had a strong focus on the education market back in the day. I wonder if this is a play to re-enter that market.

twototango21d ago

Anecdotally, at universities now, it seems like across domains, iPads are increasingly popular as ways to take notes and study. I wonder what the business model is here given their similar use cases with the neo for the student.

socalgal222d ago

> Apple has to be taking a bath on these.

Why? Lots of companies sell Windows Laptops for under $200 (a 1/3rd the price of this). Personally I'd expect Apple's costs to be lower. Plus, Apple gets services money (iCloud, AppleTV+, ...)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

gandreani22d ago

Wow props to that sales rep. Not many would pass on the opportunity to sell something more expensive. I'm assuming they make some sort of (paltry) commission

articulatepang22d ago

I've also returned Apple products multiple times, once (recently) without the packaging, and once several days past the return window. They refunded me every time, no questions asked.

This makes me wonder if it's part of their training?

angulardragon0322d ago

It is - you’re not trained to upsell, only to give the customer what they need to do what they want.

Can be a little annoying (an employee actively tried to downsell my partner, even though they knew what they wanted), but overall it’s a nice practice.

1 more reply

newsclues22d ago

I worked in AppleCare and even we support techs had incentives to sell products.

Incentives matter more than training.

mixdup22d ago

kccqzy22d ago

Targets of units sold is a better metric than targets of total revenue, if a company is focused on customer satisfaction.

reilly300022d ago

dghlsakjg22d ago

Apple Store reps don't make commission.

My experience is that they are more focused on finding the right product for your needs. I've been there more than once where they happily downsell a customer.

goatforce522d ago

At some point in the 2000s I was buying a laptop at an Apple retail store, and just before we processed the transaction the salesperson asked if I was a student.

"Umm, I kinda look like a student."

"Good enough for me!"

I got a student discount.

bdavbdav22d ago

I’ve found that experience fairly common at our Apple Store. They’ve talked me down.

alsetmusic19d ago

> I'm assuming they make some sort of (paltry) commission

I worked at an Apple Store in 2010. There was no commission. I was a sales person at the time.

tedmiston22d ago

no commission

newsclues22d ago

Does not mean no incentives.

alwillis22d ago

> This is such a better deal than I had growing up, Apple has to be taking a bath on these.

hobofan22d ago

aardvarkr22d ago

layer822d ago

1 more reply

AndriyKunitsyn22d ago

USB 2 in a type C form factor is pretty novel.

mjlee22d ago

Apple has been doing that on their base spec iPhones for the last 3 years.

kccqzy22d ago

How so? Buy a newish keyboard it has USB 1.1 in type C form factor.

KeplerBoy21d ago

Not at all. All cheap Android phones have USB 2.

einpoklum22d ago

> My high school required students to bring their own laptops to school when I started in 2010. Their shopping list suggested

How could they make you buy your own laptops? What if you didn't have one? ... Was that a private school maybe?

seb120422d ago

Pretty common in Australia, public and private schools. If you can't afford it, some schools have loan laptops.

716dpl21d ago

Apple Computer had a strong focus on the education market back in the day. I wonder if this is a play to re-enter that market.

twototango21d ago

socalgal222d ago

> Apple has to be taking a bath on these.

Why? Lots of companies sell Windows Laptops for under $200 (a 1/3rd the price of this). Personally I'd expect Apple's costs to be lower. Plus, Apple gets services money (iCloud, AppleTV+, ...)

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse