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Apple May Drop Base $599 MacBook Neo as Chip, DRAM Costs Climb
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If Apple sold a single 12/512 version holding about its current price it wouldn’t be a disaster considering the prices of the competition are also going up. So the Neo would remain very competitive and the extra RAM would sweeten it.
Some might be reading way too much in the possibility of new colours. Apple changes colours on its devices all the time.
Some might be reading way too much in the possibility of new colours. Apple changes colours on its devices all the time.
At that starting price the Neo wills tart looking like poor value. Especially if you can buy a refurbished M2-M3 MacBook Air with 16GB ram for the same money. It will become the new iPhone colour.
However. What I think Apple will do is.........................discontinue the MacBook Air. Neo 12GB RAM will make it redundant. Therefore the choice will be NEO, MacBook Pro.
EugW
macrumors P6
Unless it's Apple refurbished, then it's not recommended to get a refurb MB Air, because there is a lot of risk. Some are good units but a lot are iffy. Unfortunately, Apple refurbished MBAs are nowhere near that price.
And I don't think they'll discontinue the Air. It fits in perfectly in Apple's price ladder between the Neo and the Pro. It's an intermediate feature set with intermediate pricing.
CWallace
macrumors G5
I expect a very significant portion of the MacBook neo market do not know about refurbished MacBook Airs. They just saw an ad for it and walked into an Apple store asking "what dis?".
Selective quoting (not by you, but by the article you're referencing). Elsewhere, referring to the same earnings call:
It's no secret that the Mini and Studio are due for a M5 update in the next few months which means that, at some stage, they'll have planned to stop making the old ones. An unexplained last minute rush would explain perfectly why they're running out of stock before the new models have launched (and why the M4 iMac doesn't seem to be affected yet).
The RAM shortage may well be one underlying reason why they haven't just rushed out an emergency last batch of M3/M4 Minis and Studios - they'll be focussed on sourcing the newer, faster RAM needed by the M5. They're also competing with AI companies for advanced node chip-making capacity at TSMC which could be slowing down the launch of M5 desktops or A19 Neos.
...people here seem to be drawing a false dichotomy between "100% because RAM shortage" and "100% because new models coming" - when it's most likely more complicated than that. There's no particular reason to disbelieve Cook's comments about unexpected demand (for the Neo, too) - but the one thing he's not going to do is pre-announce a new model in an earnings call.
dannyyankou
macrumors P6
Apple should double down on keeping the base model. They might lose a little profitability, but they would hold the advantage.
A few years ago when inflation was out of control, Walmart doubled down on keeping their prices low, and their competitors were increasing prices. And guess which company has been more successful since then?
A few years ago when inflation was out of control, Walmart doubled down on keeping their prices low, and their competitors were increasing prices. And guess which company has been more successful since then?
turbineseaplane
macrumors Penryn
I'll bet against this.
They tried to move away from the Air name before and it had way too much name recognition and positive sentiment associated with it.
author.brian.mendonca
macrumors newbie
Iffy how exactly? I understand low battery health can be an issue, but I haven't heard of any widespread problems with MBA since the butterfly keyboard era. Anything M1 or later should be a safe bet in terms of hardware, right?
Their goal was to empty parts bins and use inventory.
I have been saying this since the beginning. The only reason this device exist is to deplete old stock A-chips. They did this with Homepod, Apple Vision Pro and now this. However dont worry there will be new old stock of new generations so they will resurrect this later, just like the Homepod.
You might look up what "bait and switch" means in consumerism. If Apple drops a model, you're not "baited" by anything as it doesn't exist.
GMShadow
macrumors 68030
That's not how this works.
It's bad enough MR spews Kuo and Gurman's crap uncritically, but Culpan has no idea what he's talking about. I remind the readers that Bloomberg flat out made up a story about Apple and Supermicro several years back and still have yet to retract it, but somehow we're supposed to trust the people who work/worked there.
EugW
macrumors P6
No, third party refurbs come with a lot of potential issues. Battery of course is a big one, not just because of wear, but also because it's very common for such refurbs to come with new batteries. That sounds great right? It's actually not, because although those batteries will show 100% capacity and 0 cycles at install, they are well known to degrade much quicker and sometimes cause unpredictable reliability issues. There is also stuff like hidden physical damage, lack of Apple warranty, cosmetic issues, etc.
IMO, unless it's a bargain basement price but from a decent known refurb seller with reasonable warranty, third party MBA refurbs are usually not worth the risk.
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I've just bought the base Neo, it is perfect for my 'household' laptop and I'm being rewarded for purchasing an Apple Watch Ultra as it signs in for me! It is a wonderful product and keeping the screen in day mode negates the need for a backlit keyboard in lower light.
roklanhavok
macrumors regular
I'm currently awaiting a Neo I ordered
Says it delivers May8-15
So far its still "Processing" 😳
Ordered on April 23
A18 6/5/16 / 8GB / 512GB
Apple usually comes through in the end 🤞
I prefer getting one of these over Raspberry Pi, even at ~5x the cost.
So keep 'em coming Apple.
And please sort out the RAM drama. Either be more transparent or start improving on expectations.
Says it delivers May8-15
So far its still "Processing" 😳
Ordered on April 23
A18 6/5/16 / 8GB / 512GB
Apple usually comes through in the end 🤞
I prefer getting one of these over Raspberry Pi, even at ~5x the cost.
So keep 'em coming Apple.
And please sort out the RAM drama. Either be more transparent or start improving on expectations.
EugW
macrumors P6
That's what people said about the MacBook Air: $999 was the magic number, and they couldn't go above $1000. Then Apple raised the base price to $1099. They paired that with the deletion of the 256 GB model, but they could do something like that with the Neo as well.
With the Neo, they can justify a price increase just with the jump from 8 GB to 12 GB RAM, or they could delete the 256 GB Neo too, or make the 256 GB no-Touch ID version only edu-institutional.
I'm not saying they will definitely do this, but there is precedent and in fact, I had been previously predicting a possible price increase for the 19 Pro 12 GB Neo.
author.brian.mendonca
macrumors newbie
Ahh, I see, so this is more about third party refurbishers cutting corners. Got it! Every time I've gone for a refurb from Apple, it's basically been like new, so it's definitely worth paying a little extra for, especially since parts are going to be authentic.
sdf
macrumors 65816
I used one for over a year. It did a lot of things very well, just not everything I needed.
Good for: browsing, email, word processing.
Fair for: iOS development (256GB was very limiting).
Bad for: Android development (low memory), Teams (never really figured out what was specifically limiting).
EugW
macrumors P6
Actually, I had specifically mentioned in my original post I was talking about third party refurbs, not Apple refurbs. Apple refurbs are great. However, in my case I don't usually buy Apple refurbs either these days for two reasons:
1. My credit cards won't provide extended warranty on refurbs, even if they are Apple refurbs. In contrast, for education purchases and retail purchases, my credit cards will provide a second year of warranty.
2. Depending upon the product and/or timing of the release, I often may wait until the yearly Back-To-School sale. For relatively recent hardware, education pricing + BTS promotion = better value than Apple refurb. For example, if a new Mac that I want is released in the spring, I will likely wait a couple of months for the summer BTS sale, especially if I know it will get a decent BTS deal. I used this strategy to buy the M4 MacBook Air. It was released in March of 2025, so I waited 3 months until June to purchase it at edu pricing and got free AirPods 4 with ANC, a better value than a refurb M3 MBA.
The timing sounds about right. When the M1 MacBook Air first came out in 2020, everyone was gushing about how great it was, and how 8 GB RAM was magic on Apple Silicon. Then about 6 months or so later a bunch of people were talking about how 8 GB RAM (and 256 GB storage) was limiting.
Note that this was almost 6 years ago! Base RAM and storage needs have increased even further since then.
