Overview
- Market tracker IDC reported Apple shipped about 1.1 million MacBook Neo units in the quarter ended March despite the model being on sale for only roughly three weeks after its mid‑March launch.
- Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said customer response was “off the charts,” and supply data show shipments accelerated in April as retailers worked through constrained inventory.
- Supply‑chain analyst Ming‑Chi Kuo says Apple has doubled 2026 production targets from about 5 million to roughly 10 million Neo units to meet the surge in demand.
- Producers face rising costs because Apple exhausted its initial stock of down‑binned A18 Pro chips and global DRAM prices are up, creating a real risk that Apple may change base configurations or price points to protect margins.
- The Neo is drawing many first‑time Mac buyers and concentrated demand in the U.S. (about 44% of shipments), and its success has prompted rivals such as Dell and other PC makers to launch competing $600–$700 premium notebooks.