Edgecrusherr
macrumors 6502a
I really don't think Apple would've gone into this product space without factoring in the chance that they would sell through their binned A18 Pros. Off the top of my head, my guess is that they factored in two things:
1) They likely priced the model assuming a certain percentage of these would end up being newly manufactured chips. For example, if a binned A18 Pro cost them $0, it costs $40 to produce one in 2026, and they assume the lifetime sales on the Neo may incur around 20% of the models to have produced chips, they can build that into the initial price, then take their chances of that 20% shifting One Direction or the other.
2) (this is the more important thing for Apple): The majority of Apple's profits are now from services. For every MacBook Neo sold, they are more than likely locking someone into their ecosystem and services, especially if their first time Mac buyers. From Apple's profit perspective, a MacBook Neo is just an entry fee into using Apple's services, and ideally getting someone to buy additional Apple hardware, such as an iPhone or an iPad.
While I don't think Apple does everything right, I doubt they are having any kind of "dilemma" here. I'm sure they would have considered this possibility, then factored into their plans. This might even be the reason they waited so long to do something like this, they may have wanted to work out a long-term strategy for this product category.
1) They likely priced the model assuming a certain percentage of these would end up being newly manufactured chips. For example, if a binned A18 Pro cost them $0, it costs $40 to produce one in 2026, and they assume the lifetime sales on the Neo may incur around 20% of the models to have produced chips, they can build that into the initial price, then take their chances of that 20% shifting One Direction or the other.
2) (this is the more important thing for Apple): The majority of Apple's profits are now from services. For every MacBook Neo sold, they are more than likely locking someone into their ecosystem and services, especially if their first time Mac buyers. From Apple's profit perspective, a MacBook Neo is just an entry fee into using Apple's services, and ideally getting someone to buy additional Apple hardware, such as an iPhone or an iPad.
While I don't think Apple does everything right, I doubt they are having any kind of "dilemma" here. I'm sure they would have considered this possibility, then factored into their plans. This might even be the reason they waited so long to do something like this, they may have wanted to work out a long-term strategy for this product category.
