18 years later, Apple ships a $599 computer (Macworld/Jason Snell)

In late 2008, Steve Jobs hopped on the company’s quarterly phone call with analysts and, besieged by questions about Apple being threatened by low-cost PC laptops called “netbooks,” he explained how Apple approached its product decision.

“We don’t know how to make a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk,” he said.

It took Apple nearly 18 years to figure it out, but here we are. The announcement of the $599 MacBook neo ($499 for education buyers!) is the low-cost laptop Mac users have been wondering about for years. But there are plenty of reasons it took this long.

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