Why the MacBook Neo 2 may arrive sooner than expected

It’s been barely a month since Apple introduced the MacBook Neo, its most affordable laptop ever, and it’s already being hailed as a breakout hit. Starting at $599 in the U.S. with even bigger discounts for students, it’s still hard to find some models in stock at an Apple Store, and depending on the color you want, it might take several weeks to get one.

But according to a new Bloomberg report, the enormous success of the MacBook Neo seems to be presenting Apple with a major dilemma right now. With so many people wanting a Neo, Apple may run out of chips to build its cheaper laptop sooner than expected. As a result, the MacBook Neo 2 may arrive sooner than later.

What makes the MacBook Neo so affordable

The MacBook Neo has certainly broken new ground when it comes to the price of a new Apple laptop. Students can buy one for just $499,half the price of a new Air. Before the Neo, Apple’s most affordable new laptop was the M4 MacBook Air, which started at $899 for students, and for the first time, Apple is really making a push in the entry-level laptop market.

Of course, the Neo has a few trade-offs to keep the price down. It lacks a backlit keyboard and a Force Touch trackpad, and although it has a Retina display, it doesn’t feature more advanced technologies like a Mini-LED panel or wide color gamut. These all help to keep costs down, but there’s another key component that helps Apple sell the MacBook Neo at a lower price: the chip inside it.

Foundry

Until now, Macs have been powered by M-series chips, which are designed specifically for computers and iPads. As we all know, these chips are extremely powerful and efficient, but they’re also more expensive to make.

For the Neo, Apple took a different approach. Instead of using one of its most expensive and powerful chips, the company opted for a “binned” version of the A18 Pro chip with one less GPU core. Essentially, it’s a recycled version of the chip found in the iPhone 16 Pro.

Not only was the A18 Pro chip cheaper to manufacture than an M-series chip, but Apple also had a lot of them sitting around. After all, it was the chip used in the 2024 flagship iPhone, which is no longer in production. This means that Apple was able to reuse these chips without any additional fabrication costs.

When success becomes a problem

According to analysts, Apple had expected to build 5-6 million units of the first-generation MacBook Neo before launching a new model next year. However, as reported by former Bloomberg reporter Tim Culpan, demand has been so high that Apple is no longer sure it will have enough inventory to keep the Neo on the market until next year.

Apple no longer manufactures the A18 Pro chip, and as the analyst explained, resuming production at this point would be very costly for Apple because the semiconductor node used to make this chip (known as N3E) is “hugely popular and effectively sold out.”

Foundry

Culpan points out a few options Apple has to get around the problem. For example, the company could raise prices or discontinue the cheaper 256GB model without Touch ID, both of which seem highly unlikely. Apple has been very aggressive in promoting the starting price of the MacBook Neo, so it would be disastrous to suddenly change that strategy. But that doesn’t mean Apple is out of options.

A new generation could be the perfect solution

According to the report, Apple already has plans to launch a new generation of the MacBook Neo sometime next year, featuring the A19 Pro chip. That follows a logical path that Apple’s other devices, including the iPhone, also follow.

The A19 Pro is the same chip found in the iPhone 17 Pro and features 12GB of RAM. By the time Apple launches the iPhone 18, there will already be a sufficient stockpile of A19 Pro chips on hand. If MacBook Neo sales continue to grow, the solution could be moving up the launch of a new MacBook Neo with the A19 Pro chip.

Eugen Wegmann

Restarting production of the A18 Pro at this point would cost Apple a lot of money, but ramping up production of the current A19 Pro, which would be shared between the remaining production of the iPhone 17 Pro and the MacBook Neo 2, could be an option. That could give Apple enough supply to ship MacBook Neo for 15 or so months.

Perhaps instead of a launch in March 2027, about a year after the first Neo, we might see a new model a bit sooner, perhaps later this fall or in January 2027.

Either way, it’s impressive to see just how successful the MacBook Neo has been, and Apple is certainly on the right track with this product. We’ll learn a little more at Apple’s second-quarter earnings call on April 30, but Tim Cook has already said the Neo had “the best launch week ever for first-time Mac customers.” So the numbers are very good.

And if a new model arrives sooner rather than later, they could get even better.