What’s that coming over the hill? It’s a MacBook, a MacBook Neo
Apple has apparently bitten the bullet and ordered up millions of A18 processors to place inside another few million MacBook Neo computers to help it meet unprecedented demand for its fantastically popular new product.
That’s the word coming out of Culpium.com, which first reported that supplies of the product were dwindling in the face of that demand.
Get out of the bin!
It took a commitment to bring these extra units online. Apple had to instruct suppliers to build more MacBook Neo units and had to order up millions of full-price processors from TSMC.
What matters about that is that the original batch of Neo’s were allegedly made using binned chips, which is why they have just five functioning cores.
The new batch of Neos will likely use brand new processors, capable of running more cores, though Apple will probably switch that down, Culpium said.
This move means Apple will need to pay more per processor, which may impact the production cost of the new batch of Neos. In conjunction with rapid increases in memory costs Apple may be forced to increase the cost of the MacBook Neo, which I don’t think it will want to do.
Instead, I think it may end up discontinuing the $599 model in favor of the $699 unit, though I also think the company may feel that the psychological market share advantage of that low price makes it worth relying on associated services and accessories sales to protect its margins on the to keep the same cost.
It knows most competitors can’t match it for this, and market share now may pay bigger dividends in future replacement/upgrade cycles. Particularly as it’s such a good computer.
iPhone moment for the Mac
One more thing I want to note before sending you over to Culpium’s report which contains lots of additional detail, is the numbers.
- The report claims Apple originally got five million MacBook Neo’s made and has now increased that order to ten million.
- One way to think about that might be to cast your mind back to 2007 and the original iPhone introduction. It took Apple about 18 months after the iPhone was released for it to sell 10 million of the devices. I
- t now looks like Apple may have already sold around five million units of its new Mac in just two months.
I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again: With MacBook Neo, Apple has hit the iPhone moment for the Mac. I couldn’t be happier. I also need a new Mac!
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