Since Apple’s entry-level notebook product MacBook Neo was officially launched on March 11, 2026, the market response has far exceeded expectations. The supply has been tight for several weeks, and users of new orders generally face a waiting period of several weeks for delivery. This new product, which starts at $599, has been sought after by consumers because of its price and configuration combination. Currently, various colors and configuration versions have experienced obvious delays in shipments in the channel.
According to analyst Tim Culpan, in the face of rising demand pressure, Apple has begun to take remedial measures and is directly doubling the original planned production of MacBook Neo to meet market demand as much as possible. At the same time, in order to support additional production capacity, Apple was forced to order more A18 Pro chips to avoid the dilemma of "having orders but lacking chips."
The popularity of MacBook Neo has put Apple into a rather delicate situation: on the one hand, selling out the first batch of production is conducive to maintaining the established profit margin; on the other hand, it is obviously more in line with business interests to "sell more". But in terms of the reality of additional orders, Apple will have to face the challenge of higher costs, including rising DRAM prices, which means that the cost of producing a MacBook Neo today is likely to be higher than the original batch.
The more troublesome thing is the chip problem. The A18 Pro that powers the MacBook Neo is a variant of the same chip used in the iPhone 16 Pro, and is essentially a repurposing of chips that didn't meet the required specifications of the iPhone model. The A18 Pro for iPhone needs to have 6 available GPU cores, and Apple "downgrades" the chip with only 5 GPU cores working properly for MacBook Neo to meet the needs of the entry-level Mac product line without wasting wafers.
Culpan believes that the inventory of this type of “naturally reduced” A18 Pro chips is approaching depletion. In order to further expand mass production, Apple is now likely to have to specifically place orders for the production of new A18 Pro chips. These chips will have a full 6 GPU cores, and then Apple will actively shield one of them to maintain the existing 5-core GPU specifications of MacBook Neo, thereby maintaining consistency at the product specification level. This extra link will inevitably push up the cost of the unit, but Apple hopes to maintain the $599 price tag through this approach.
However, Culpan also pointed out that Apple may consider another path: abandoning the entry-level starting price of US$599 and using price adjustments to absorb the new cost pressure. The specific approach may be to stop selling the $599 base model and only retain the $699 model with 512GB storage as the only version of MacBook Neo on sale. In the Mac product line, Apple has previously adopted a similar strategy with the Mac mini, quietly removing the $599 entry-level configuration from the shelves, leaving only higher-priced models for sale.
However, for MacBook Neo, it is not a certainty to simply copy the Mac mini's "increase in price and reduce configuration" script. The report pointed out that Apple is very clear that an important part of the success of MacBook Neo is its extremely attractive price point of US$599, and arbitrarily raising the threshold price may weaken the appeal of this product originally targeted at entry-level users and price-sensitive people.
Currently, it is difficult for the outside world to accurately determine how many A18 Pro chips Apple has left that can be used in MacBook Neo, nor can it know the specific figures for its additional orders and production capacity planning. But what is certain is that MacBook Neo has become one of Apple’s hottest Mac products at the moment, and Apple is bound to continue to “pursue victory” as much as possible in this wave of enthusiasm and find a new balance between cost control and maintaining price advantages.