It has been a month since the launch of the MacBook Neo, and all signs indicate that this is a hit for Apple.

In a new interview published today by Tom’s Guide, Apple executives John Ternus and Greg Joswiak provided more insights about the MacBook Neo, Apple’s biggest "failures," and more.

Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, described the features that set the MacBook Neo apart from other products in its price range:

“The products that (Neo) competes with in this space are plastic. You can really bend them. They are so cheap. Because what did they do? They tried to cut a cent, a quarter, a dollar. They tried everything to make it cheaper. This is a very different approach than creating lower price and high value.”

He continued:

“We never want to send junk, right? We want to send great products that have the Apple experience and quality. And doing that with Neo required something completely new from the ground up. Using technologies we developed like Apple Silicon, but also leveraging the expertise we developed over the years in making Macs, phones, and iPads.”

Joz spoke about the idea of Apple glasses and the "inevitability" of this product category:

“There is an inevitability of merging the digital and physical worlds. That is the whole purpose of spatial computing. I can’t give you a timeline on when spatial will become something else, but you know it’s inevitable. The merging of digital and physical worlds.”

On the occasion of Apple’s 50th anniversary, Joswiak and Ternus were asked about what they see as Apple’s biggest "failures" over the years.

Joz pointed to the first MacBook Air:

“We’re not perfect. We’re going to make mistakes along the way,” Joz said. “Steve talked about this. No one gets everything right. But what are you trying to do? When something goes wrong, you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and figure out what to change?”

As iconic as the new 2008 MacBook Air was, according to Joz, it “didn’t sell very well.”

Ternus cited the notoriously disastrous launch of Apple Maps as an example:

“When we started Maps, it was an ambitious endeavor. It was rocky. But the team just kept pushing through the years. And today Apple Maps is absolutely great. If you have a vision and you’re persistent and keep working at it, you can turn something you know, even if the start is rocky, into something great.”

You can read the full interview on the Tom’s Guide website or watch it in video format below. What do you think are Apple’s biggest failures? Do you agree with Joz and Ternus? Share with us in the comments.

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  • USB-C cable that shows your charging speed

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