By Jaspreet Singh
May 31 (Reuters) – Dell on Sunday unveiled its most affordable laptop, XPS 13, as the PC maker aims to capture market share from Apple’s MacBook Neo by attracting students and young professionals.
Starting at $699 and a reduced $599 for students aged 16 and older during the back-to-school season, the XPS 13 seeks to offer a superior experience compared to the MacBook Neo, Dell said.
The aggressive push into the PC market with a lower-priced laptop shows how Dell has taken cues from Apple to broaden its reach in a price-sensitive industry that is facing tighter memory-chips supply.
Dell said the XPS 13 will be its thinnest and lightest model, about half a pound lighter than Apple’s MacBook Neo, while also featuring a larger display.
Apple debuted the MacBook Neo lineup starting at $599 in March, which boosted its fiscal second-quarter results a month later. The Neo costs $500 for students and competes with Chromebooks and affordable Windows devices.
“I’ll give them (Apple) credit. It’s a good product and it validates the market we’ve been talking about. Students and consumers deserve better options at accessible price points, and we agree,” Dell Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke said.
Dell’s new laptop comes after the company said in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that it was looking to compete across all price points in the consumer PC market and announced plans to launch the XPS 13.
The company also brought back its popular XPS laptop lineup in January. The efforts aim to mitigate the expected slowdown in PC unit shipments in the second half of the year due to the rising memory chip costs.
XPS 13 with Intel Core Series 3 processors will be available soon, while the model with Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors and the Storm color is expected later this summer.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; editing by Alan Barona)
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