Want a MacBook Neo? Better order it soon. It’s possible Apple will sell out of the affordable notebook … and not just for a few weeks. It’s not impossible that the laptop will go completely off the market until Apple can solve a shortage of a critical component … and it’s not RAM! Alternatively, Apple could be forced to raise the price.
And it’s all because the Neo is so wildly popular. Here’s what’s going on.
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MacBook Neo is suffering from its own success
Apple’s newly released MacBook Neo marks the company’s most aggressive push into the budget laptop market. It comes with a 13-inch Liquid Retina display, a durable aluminum design and all-day battery life, all at a starting price of just $599 — the lowest ever for an Apple laptop.
Powered by an A18 Pro chip, the MacBook Neo is designed to handle everyday tasks like web browsing, video calls and document work while maintaining the core macOS experience. Given the price and features, it is aimed squarely at students and first-time Mac users.
It’s wildly successful. After being on the market for a month, Apple still can’t keep up with demand. Those ordering a MacBook Neo today face wait times of several weeks.
And the problem could get worse, not better, according to an analyst.
A permanent shortage of Apple A18 chips
While Apple execs must be thrilled at the success of the Neo, the company also faces a problem: There’s a limited supply of the A18 Pro processor that powers the budget notebook.
Apple chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company produced the A18 Pro for the iPhone 16. Using the A18 Pro in the MacBook Neo was a clever example of recycling. The laptop runs on A18 Pro processors in which one of the six GPU cores failed, so they couldn’t go into the iPhone 16 Pro. (It’s a common practice called “chip binning.”)
However, TSMC stopped making this processor, switching to the A19 Pro for the iPhone 17 Pro. Which means that when the supply of A18 Pro chips runs out, there won’t be any more.
“MacBook Neo was designed around usable but leftover chips which would otherwise have been scrapped,” wrote analyst Tim Culpan on his Culpium blog. “But with MacBook Neo being insanely popular, the stock of those binned chips will run out before demand gets satisfied.”
What can Apple do?
The analyst says Apple’s plan was to make 5 million or 6 million Neo units. When the company runs out of processors, it’s not clear what the next step is.
Of course, Apple could pay TSMC to make more A18 Pro chips, but one of the secrets behind the low price of the MacBook Neo is that the processor was cheap — almost free. A special product run would cost significantly more.
“MacBook Neo’s A18 Pro was — past tense — built on TSMC’s 3nm process (N3E),” wrote Culpan. “That node is now hugely popular and effectively sold out. Apple could, in theory, beg TSMC CEO CC Wei for a few hot lots — paying a premium to jump the queue — but that would almost certainly kill profits on the low-cost laptop.”
New versions of Apple’s budget laptop?
As the analyst points out, Apple could theoretically make a special version of the Neo with additional features and a higher price, absorbing the additional cost of the processor. But at $799 or more, the product would be less appealing to buyers.
Or the company could start putting the A19 Pro chip in the MacBook Neo. But its plan was likely to use that processor in a next-generation version of the notebook for release in 2027.
Now, Apple needs a solution. The MacBook Neo is bringing in loads of former Windows users and growing the Mac‘s install base. These new customers likely will jump up to a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro someday. Apple simply cannot tell them, “Sorry, we’re sold out of the Neo until next year.”
The MacBook Neo is Apple’s entry-level laptop. It boasts Apple’s signature all-day battery life and ease of use. It can swim through web browsing, document editing and other basic tasks. But if you want higher specs than its 8GB memory or the maximum 512GB storage, the MacBook Air is a better choice.
- 16-hour battery life
- Comes in four bright, fun colors
- Thin and light design
- No MagSafe charging
- USB 3 and USB 2 ports
- No support for high-resolution displays
Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh SE/30 (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer.
That’s because he’s a “tablet first” type of guy. Rather than use a Macbook, he connects a keyboard case to the iPad. And instead of a desktop Mac, he connects his tablet to a 27-inch display and full-size keyboard. (So don’t try to tell him that everyone has to use a Mac to be productive.)
Before coming to Cult of Mac, Ed wrote for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
5 responses to “Biggest problem with the MacBook Neo? It’s too popular!”
Yes, BUT. Apple and Tim Cook are pretty much wizards at the supply chain.
Read what Steve Jack suggests on Mac Daily News. I think he’s right. While this may have started as a very clever usage of older chips that might have hit the bin, Apple should spend a little more to keep those supply lines humming.
Their margins will drop if they have to buy chips (rather than getting to use the limited supply of “free” ones they have now), but if well managed, their market will grow, and the stock market could very well forgive AAPL for the temporary margin drop.
Sorry, meant to add this:
Why are the USB-C ports (one USB 2, one USB 3) a “con”? They’re faster than magsafe and this is a budget laptop.
Do we really think that its users will buy the lowest-end Mac laptop they can and then want to plug it into a high-res display?
Not sure those are truly legitimate “cons” for a cheap laptop, especially—as you note—you can bump up to the fantastic MBAir if you need ’em. I just don’t think that the market for the Neo will care.
It would seem to me that the best solution is to upgrade to binned A19 chips and plan for full spec chips in the future, possibly using binned chips for the base model and full spec chips for the step up model. This would be in keeping with their Mac lineup marketing model and allow the opportunity to spread chip demand load while incurring minimal disruption. There is no doubt that increasing production of current chips is cheaper and more efficient than restarting an old process. Filling the gap between the Neo and the Air might be a great strategy, allowing customers to choose what best fits their budget and upgrading the ports and storage options on higher spec models would get people like me off the fence. It could be genius, it’s already possible to spec an Air into the pro range so it wouldn’t be unprecedented either.
This will be interesting to watch. I believe that the NEO’s appeal for a lot of people was the $599.00 price. If that goes up – even if more RAM or a bigger standard SSD is included – that laptop will again be seen as ‘a more expensive laptop made by Apple’.
Agreed, but I “think” Apple knows this. They really have to, and I’m sure their market research has confirmed what they need to do. They’ll just have to take the hit on the margins and keep the price the same.