Overview
- Supply‑chain reports on Tuesday said Apple is running low on A18 Pro chips for the Neo after sales beat forecasts, prompting talks with suppliers about next steps.
- The $599 Neo hits its price by using binned A18 Pro parts, which are leftover iPhone 16 Pro chips with one faulty GPU core disabled, and that salvage pool is finite.
- TSMC’s 3nm N3E factories are near full capacity, so new A18 Pro wafers would come at a premium that would squeeze Apple’s margins.
- Options under discussion include paying for new chip runs or reallocating capacity, trimming the lineup by dropping the 256GB base model, or letting stock wind down as delivery waits hover around two to three weeks.
- Multiple outlets report Tim Culpan expects a successor with an A19 Pro chip and 12GB of RAM in 2027, though any move to speed that timeline is unconfirmed and would raise costs early on.