Apple is reportedly set to speed past Dell and become the third-largest laptop vendor, thanks in part to the affordable MacBook Neo
Even we've been impressed by Apple's MacBook Neo, and we're called PC Gamer. It's essentially an iPhone 16 Pro wearing a laptop suit, and makes for a pretty tempting lappy when you take into account the lovely chassis design, decent screen, and the fact it starts at $599.
It's a laptop that seems destined to capture the market for those who need a stylish, functional machine for minimal amounts of cash. Reports indicate that Apple has ramped up production to 10 million units in response to strong demand, and new market research suggests it will help propel Apple's position in the laptop space to new heights.
According to Techpowerup, a report from market research firm Sigmaintell projects that Apple is set to become the third-largest laptop vendor by the end of 2026. The company is anticipated to sell roughly 28 million MacBooks this year, which would represent around a five million unit increase over 2025.
That would put Apple ahead of computing giant Dell, and behind Lenovo and HP, with projected sales of 43 million and 36 million units respectively.
With the MacBook Neo now taking care of the lower end of the market, and Apple's higher-end machines filling out the rest of its laptop product stack, the company now looks to be in an enviable position .
And that's before we take into account the company's approach to memory usage. Its Unified Memory Architecture, in which components share the same limited pool of RAM (instead of separate chips for the CPU and GPU), means that its laptops are not as reliant on the memory supply chain as others. In the middle of the RAMpocalypse, Apple's all-in-one approach may well be an ace in the hole.
Plus, the company doesn't need to use providers like AMD, Intel, or Nvidia for its internal hardware needs, which helps to keep its costs low and its output uninterrupted. Time will tell as to whether these projected figures prove out in practice for the Cupertino titan, but it certainly seems to be a rosy outlook as things stand.