If Apple is truly learning from the MacBook Neo, it should return the iPhone to its $199 roots

Affordability could be a global-market-winning mantra

08 Apr 2026, 20:30 by https://www.techradar.com/uk/author/lance-ulanoff · TechRadar

Opinion By Lance Ulanoff published 8 April 2026

(Image credit: Future)

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Apple is selling an insane number of MacBook Neos, so much so that it's now trying to adjust production to meet demand. People want the MacBook Neo in ways they have never wanted a MacBook before. It's a near-perfect blend of Apple quality and affordability, and it's opened the floodgates to consumers who thought they could never afford a MacBook. I expect this to be one of Apple's most popular products of the decade, and I hope that it teaches the tech giant a valuable lesson:

Make the iPhone more affordable.

As of this moment, the cheapest iPhone you can buy is the $599 iPhone 17e. Despite being a "budget" phone, we described it in our review thusly: "the 17e feels like a more complete and modern member of the iPhone lineup."

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Does that price sound familiar? It should. This budget smartphone costs as much as Apple's most affordable laptop: the aforementioned MacBook Neo. Sure, the iPhone 17e has a slightly better chip (the A19 as opposed to the Neo's A18 Pro), but that performance difference is probably nominal, at best. They do match each other on 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, by the way.

We pay quite a premium for pocketability, but does it make sense for them to be priced the same? Maybe. On the other hand, the MacBook Neo reminds us that the first thing most consumers consider in a purchase decision is price.

Let's bring the iPhone back to that magic price

The iPhone 17e (Image credit: Jacob Krol/Future)

When the iPhone launched almost 20 years ago, it was priced at $499 for the base 8GB (storage) model. A year later, the iPhone 3G landed for $199. Granted, this price was achieved through carrier subsidies, but it was also what Steve Jobs liked to call the "magic" price point, a term he coined when launching the iPod mini.

Once carriers figured out how to shoulder the full cost of the phone and let you pay off monthly, price became a construct. It was something that only existed as the thing Apple announced on launch, and that was quickly subsumed into years of monthly payments to your carrier.

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