(Credit: Eric Zeman/PCMag)
Apple’s MacBook Neo is a runaway hit, and if you’re planning to buy one, you should act fast. Not only is the company reportedly considering discontinuing its $599 256GB variant, but it is also running short of the A18 Pro processors that power the device, tech columnist Tim Culpan reports.
Apple repurposed leftover A18 Pro chips from the iPhone 16 Pro for its newest MacBook lineup. While many were skeptical about the performance of an iPhone chip in a laptop, the product received positive reviews from customers and critics, and Apple is now seeing more demand than initially expected.
“We were very bullish on the product [MacBook Neo] before announcing it, but we under-called the level of enthusiasm that would be with it,” CEO Tim Cook said last week during the company’s Q2 earnings call.
With the inventory selling out quickly, Culpan reports that Apple has asked its suppliers to double production. Before launch, the company had asked suppliers to prepare for 5-6 million units, but after launch, it revised the production target to 10 million units, he says.
While that seems great on paper for both Apple and potential customers, the company faces a strange challenge. It is running out of the A18 Pro processors it had retained from the iPhone 16 Pro production phase, and it may have to place orders for a fresh batch from TSMC. That could mean both delayed production and increased costs amidst a global memory crunch.
So far, Apple has used only leftover “binned” versions of the A18 Pro in its latest laptops. These were chips with one defective GPU core that Apple reportedly retained from the iPhone production for MacBook Neo. When the new chips arrive, Apple may also have to disable a GPU core on them to ensure all MacBook Neos in circulation have just five active GPU cores, instead of the possible six, Culpan adds.
Cook has already mentioned that Apple may have to spend more on chip acquisitions in the coming quarters. Whether the increased production costs will affect the price of the MacBook Neo remains to be seen. If the $599 256GB variant goes out of stock, the most affordable MacBook would then be a $699 Neo with 512GB storage and Touch ID.