Apple is Reportedly Facing a 'Massive Dilemma' With the MacBook Neo

[switz]

Apple's easiest solution is to suddenly release a third version for $100 more with the full 6 core GPU. Incremental updates have been done before during a model year.

On 11 March (Neo release date) I walked into my local Apple Store at 11:00 Phoenix time. The store had been open an hour. No purchase que in sight. My preconceived color choice was not what I expected, so I got a silver 512GB Neo instead and was out of the store in 20 minutes. When I got home, I cancelled the ordered Citrus color model that had a shipping date over two weeks out. I was (and still am) a happy camper with this laptop.

As I often travel internationally and the rules are changing it seems, it made financial sense to travel with a $600 laptop versus my $7,500 M4 Max MacBook Pro (128GB-8TBb SSD) in case an official decides to "keep" my laptop for inspection.

 

[crsh1976]

They can either use non-binned 6-core chips when needed (and not disclose it, most users wouldn't know anyway), or gimp the non-binned chips through software to disable that 6th core (but that requires additional operations, thus it adds up additional costs).

Apple could literally use any old/unneeded AS chips in there, M1s or A17s instead, it wouldn't matter much and these chips are still plenty fast for a basic notebook like the Neo.

In fact, I think it would be a great way to use chips that would be discarded otherwise, they should even be transparent about it as a way to reduce e-waste.

 

[Chopper3]

In other words this confirms what I said all along. they make products to get rid of leftover components.

Presumably this is news to you? If so this practice is industry-wide and has been since the 1970s, maybe earlier.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

AMD Duron?

So many enthusiasts back in the day would buy a Duron chip and then do the pencil bridge hack on them to turn them into Athlon's

It was an Athlon, but yes the Duron was famous for it.

Buddy had, I'm going to say 400mhz Duron, that he overclocked with just air to close to 800mhz. Completely stable.

 

[Charlie Bonesx]

Apple can't just give people different chips in the same laptop model.

why not?

 

[nuckinfutz]

If only Apple had a purported supply chain genius....oh wait they do! #FireTimCook

 

[JPack]

The packaging is dated with that. The actual silicon could have been binned and sitting in storage for a long time.

You need to package the chip first in order to bin them.

The probability that Apple was hoarding unpackaged and untested A18 Pro wafers is virtually zero.

There is zero chance Apple went into this Neo launch using “binned” parts because this outcome of “unexpected“ success was a high probability. Does anybody believe Apple launched a brand new product line with a hope and prayer that “binned” supply would exactly match demand?

 

[klasma]

Also, and most importantly, what does it matter? Literally, the conclusion of this article is that nothing is going to change for consumers. Apple is obviously not going to discontinue the product or jack up the price a month after launch, and eventually supply will catch up to demand as usual.
Really feels like a nothing burger of a story.

The original article that MacRumors is reporting on here is targeting investors, who do care if Apple has to lower the margins.

 

[Chopper3]

They can either use non-binned 6-core chips when needed (and not disclose it, most users wouldn't know anyway), or gimp the non-binned chips through software to disable that 6th core (but that requires additional operations, thus it adds up additional costs).

Apple could literally use any old/unneeded AS chips in there, M1s or A17s instead, it wouldn't matter much and these chips are still plenty fast for a basic notebook like the Neo.

In fact, I think it would be a great way to use chips that would be discarded otherwise, they should even be transparent about it as a way to reduce e-waste.

"or gimp the non-binned chips through software to disable that 6th core (but that requires additional operations, thus it adds up additional costs" - it doesn't cost anything, literally not a cent.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Apple's easiest solution is to suddenly release a third version for $100 more with the full 6 core GPU. Incremental updates have been done before during a model year.

Agreed -- and it'd be nice to see them pursue this and not worry about overlapping with the MBA.

If people are jumping on the Neo concepts, lean into it.

 

[Chopper3]

You need to package the chip first in order to bin them.

Often not sorry, you bin the SoC first, before adding the memory and storage to complete the SoP

 

[crsh1976]

"or gimp the non-binned chips through software to disable that 6th core (but that requires additional operations, thus it adds up additional costs" - it doesn't cost anything, literally not a cent.

Probably not a huge deal, but like anything - apply gimping microcode, test it, etc. Still something.

 

[Charlie Bonesx]

I wonder if public knowledge of the Neo being designed around a defective iPhone chip will mitigate the demand.

did it mitigate demand that every Intel Mac that wasn't an i7 (or i9 or whatever the premium chip was of that generation) had a "defective" intel chip?

it's just how silicon works

 

[WarmWinterHat]

You need to package the chip first in order to bin them.

You can bin a chip prior to packaging. Wafer sort and probe testing.

 

[I7guy]

Apple is a victim of its own success. I guess it is true that being too popular can be bad.

 

[Biro]

Well, now we know why they were able to get the price point so low on these. Here, have a discarded chip in your machine that we paid $0 for. We think you're going to love it!

The source and specification of the A18 Pro chip in the MacBook Nano has been publicly known from the start. Chips with binned cores have always been used throughout the electronics industry. So I’m not sure what you’re going on about.

 

[iMac The Knife]

Seems pretty smart. Like making croutons from stale bread. And people do seem to love the Neo.

-bdd

I understand what you're saying but I personally don't like croutons, stale bread, or lower-quality/partially defective lower-tier binned chips in my computers/devices.

 

[egdiroh]

It's not a 0$ chip. From an accounting point of view that is a ridiculous idea. This is a way to reduce the overhead on the phones, and making them more profitable by not having to have them eat the overhead of production of these chips. The iPad mini 7th generation used the same category of chip from the previous generation. So they probably already knew that they would use these chips for something. by having multiple products using this class of chip they don't have to revise those products as frequently to use up the chips and can ensure that they aren't doing as much cannibalizing of their main products with these filler products.

 

[jonnysods]

They can just use the iPhone 17 binned chips then right? I'm sure there is a pile up.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Isn't that a good problem to have though? Yes, the margin might drop, but the overall profit would increase, right?

Today I learned that selling out of an entire product line where the manufacturing was set to be profitable with some percentage LESS than 100% sold is a dilemma. 😀 Now we know why they’re EX-Bloomberg… the stuff you make up about Apple has to be at Gurman levels. 🙂 Something more like “Apple plans to produce processors and damage them to ensure they have enough binned A18 Pro’s to go around.”

 

[now i see it]

Apple's initial plan was to have suppliers build around five to six million MacBook Neo units before ceasing production of the model with the A18 Pro chip

They had 6 MILLION defective A18 Pro chips. Goes to show that the yield on iPhone chips that meet specifications is absolutely miserable

 

[Chopper3]

Probably not a huge deal, but like anything - apply gimping microcode, test it, etc. Still something.

No binning is done after testing, which is only done once, it's the results of the testing that gets a chip binned - there's no extra time or cost done, you test the chip then tell it what it is and what it can do - same for perfect chips, same for all other bins.

 

[Eric5h5]

I wonder if public knowledge of the Neo being designed around a defective iPhone chip will mitigate the demand.

No, because all companies do this already and have done for years, including Apple. Where do you think the MacBook Air with the 7-GPU-core M1 came from? (Among many other products.) It's very common. Why would you discard an otherwise perfectly functional chip just because 100% of the cores don't work? This article is misleading; binned chips aren't free.

 

[klasma]

This is such a fake, made up story.

You literally see the date code on the Neo’s A18 Pro as 2545, meaning November 2025. These chips were made well after iPhone 16 Pro ended production.

So, no these are not “binned” or leftover chips. The A18 for Neo are brand new.


View attachment 2620608

It might be that the date indicates when the packaged chips were produced, not when the wafers were etched.

 

[MacMikePro]

Alternative option is to just put a 6 core-GPU A18 Pro chip in them, charge something like $50 more and call it the Macbook Neo Plus / Neo Pro

Absolutely not, that would only "train" Apple customers to wait with all of their products. "Maybe if I just wait a bit and not buy it, Apple will be forced to make a better option in a couple months." While also pissing off people who already bought it by not giving them the option. Basically Apple will just do exactly what this article said, they'll just make more chips and purposely disable a core to make them all the same, it's really not a big deal.