Apple is already rumored to be running out of the binned iPhone chips they’re using for the Neo due to high demand.

MS only cares about the consumer market enough to get people used to using Windows.

They've captured the business market, full stop.

This will have zero impact on Windows, especially since mini pc's have been ubiquitous in the enterprise for years now

An interesting thought experiment, but the $300 price is not realistic for any company other than SBCs makers (let alone Apple).

I also feel desktop computing is fundamentally a different sort of experience where there is a bigger emphasis on flexibility (both in terms of hardware and the software platform).

They already made it - called the Apple TV. They should make a $200-$400 mini PC with no fans. You can choose tvOS or macOS, and either way it makes an awesome gaming console with 4 forward usb-c ports. They’ve done alright with mobile gaming and they could really make a dent in the console market if they tried. Aside from that it would be a great home server or even a desktop PC.

That would be interesting. An ARM mini PC would benefit from being both small and running cool/quiet, both something that mini PCs need. Imagine how small it'd be with an external power supply? You could make it the size of a thick iPhone, but a bunch of ports and a passive cooler. That'd be sweet actually.

this article is slop

Eh, the $300 Mac Mini Neo already exists since a decade. It was called a NUC before Intel stopped producing them. Now its Mini-PCs made predominantly by chinese companies like Minisforum and the like. I built my father a NUC barebone for under 300€ like 8 years ago. It has a shitty celeron with 4 cores which boosts to like 2ghz, 8gb of ram and a 256gb sata ssd. When i visit him and do a bit of support on the system i'm surprised again and again how snappy this old ass shitbox feels.