MacBook Neo Outsold Every Other Mac in Its Debut Quarter

[avkills]

How to scream I don't know Apple's market base.

Well, yeah, it's too late now....

 

[Elwe]

How was the sub $700 market even 2%? That had to be all refurbs. They’ve never sold a computer in that price range. Unless that was 100% base model Mac Minis from a few years ago?

Not sure if someone else answered it, but it would seem it was both the (then) base M4 Mac mini and the Walmart-special M1 MacBook Air.

 

[RowellE]

This is what happens when you make your products affordable. Now do that with the AVP.

 

[axantas]

I absolutely had to have that green Neo, just for "on the go" lightweight stuff. Now I am am running LogicPro arrangements with multiple instruments and plugins "on the go" with it.

So far for the doubted efficiency and capabilities of this little machine.

 

[snipr125]

The Neo is great for its target audience for sure and 1.1M units shipped shows it is popular (cheap and cheerful). What is interesting however is that everyone was saying it would basically kill off the MBA, yet the MBA has shipped 900,000 units indicating there are many who are willing to pay a bit more for quality of life improvements and beefier performance at a reasonable price. I suppose Amazon discounts have helped in this regard also.

 

[eliog]

Cannibalizing the other MacBook models.
Doubt they made any more money.

It's not about making money on the Macs anymore, it's about all the App Store/services revenues.

 

[snipr125]

It's not about making money on the Macs anymore, it's about all the App Store/services revenues.

Yep, iPhone and iPads is where they make their money through the App Store.

 

[Radeon85]

I have M1 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM. I think I have finally hit the limit of 8GB of RAM. It took Safari with 12+ tabs, ChatGPT, Notion, Codex and Xcode to do it. I think for basic needs, where Neo is aimed at, 8GB will be plenty for years to come.

If 8GB were enough, then iPhones wouldn't come with 12 GB. 8 GB for a machine with a desktop OS is not enough.

 

[TechRemarker]

It's a great value and seemingly great machine considering all, but would assume it's obvious it would do far better than all the others because it's cheaper. Just like how air sold many more than the pro because it's cheaper than the pro, and the Neo is cheaper than the air so it sold a lot more. And if they released on that's cheaper than Neo it would sell more presumably as well. Like how the Vision Pro isn't selling much because it's so expensive. If much cheaper version was released would sell tons. But they are priced they way they are for reason.

 

[HuskerNKS]

If 8GB were enough, then iPhones wouldn't come with 12 GB. 8 GB for a machine with a desktop OS is not enough.

It is not enough for some of us. Many millions of people simply browse the web, check email, use spreadsheets. It's plenty for them.

 

[minik]

I still use mine from time to time, the trackpad and no backlit keyboard don't really bother me. Can't wait to hear more on Q3 earnings, also imagine if macOS 27 is more optimized for device with 8GB of memory.

 

[p96]

If there was a 12 or 16GB RAM option it would be even more popular... at least one more (me) person popular.

 

[groove-agent]

It makes sense it would outsell in units because it’s new, and cheaper.

I’d like to see if the Neo outsells other Macs in revenue and profit.

 

[snipr125]

If there was a 12 or 16GB RAM option it would be even more popular... at least one more (me) person popular.

Yes but then the price would be close to base MBA territory, at which point its just better to buy the MBA, which I suppose is exactly what Apple would want you to do.

 

[Happy_John]

Why would they be non-binned?

It sounds like you don't understand what binned chips are. The entire industry takes this approach.

Almost every "stock" ( standard configuration) Mac has a "binned" chip. You have to request a customization / upgrade in the configurator when purchasing if you want the "full-fat" chip.

That's not saying "binned" chips are bad, it's saying "binned" chips are the default in the industry.

Unless you absolutely need the extra cores, a buyer would be far better off spending the extra money on more memory than on the "full fat" chip over the "binned" chip.

It a case of a little knowledge causing more strife then either no knowledge or a competent amount of knowledge.

I mean, do people really think intel specifically designed scores of variants of i3, i5, i7 chips with every generation? Or were the variations just different grades of "binning"?

 

[chachawpi]

8gb of ram lol, good luck in 3 years with it… damn

Macs use magical iRAM which transcends all other RAM.

 

[Happy_John]

Macs use magical iRAM which transcends all other RAM.

No, they don't. But Macs are very good at dynamically allocating memory to the various processes.

Given the price point, the 8 gigs of memory is not going to be a problem. If you know that you use-cases are memory intensive, the Neo is to for you, but that's nothing to complain about. If you need a tractor, but buy a golf cart, that's not really the manufacturer's fault, that's simply a bad purchasing decision for your use-cases. Caveat Emptor.

Whereas, if you're complaining about the amount of memory because you heard some random YouTuber complaining about it, well.....

 

[Ja50n]

That sub-$500 starting price with the education discount was one heck of a magic number. I came very close to buying one myself even though I have an M2 Pro MBP that's better in every way that I can use instead...

 

[Tagbert]

Cannibalizing the other MacBook models.
Doubt they made any more money.

By all accounts, most of the Neo buyers are new to Apple computers. There will certainly be some cannibalization but there is a lot more new custom acquisition from this.

 

[Happy_John]

That sub-$500 starting price with the education discount was one heck of a magic number. I came very close to buying one myself even though I have an M2 Pro MBP that's better in every way that I can use instead...

Yep, they're lovely little machines. But I already have enough Macs. I don't intend buying a new machine until 2028 at the earliest, because I'm already shorted. My M2 Max Studio is Not showing it's age enough to justify buying anything new.

The situation in which I would buy a Neo would be if any of our machines got destroyed ( married with kids, these things happen) - what I like about the Neo is that the price is low enough to immediately go out and get one to replace a dead machine, at least int eh. short- to mid-term, without having to worry too much about the damage it'll do to my bank account.

I very much do like the idea that, if needs be, I can instantly replace a broken Mac with a Neo and still be able to pay the monthly bills and buy the groceries etc.

That's a massive difference from the bad old later Intel Mac days.

 

[huge_apple_fangirl]

Are these sales coming from cannibalizing MacBook Air sales or from new customers? How is the M5 MBA selling in comparison to previous versions at this point in the cycle?

 

[tomtad]

Cannibalizing the other MacBook models.
Doubt they made any more money.

If they're making the same margins who cares. And they're getting market share to boot

 

[snipr125]

Are these sales coming from cannibalizing MacBook Air sales or from new customers? How is the M5 MBA selling in comparison to previous versions at this point in the cycle?

I think its more from new customers, with some cannibalisation of MBA sales as the MBA still shipped 900,000 units.

 

[dlopan]

I got a M2 air for cheap, thats the good news, bad news is thats it got 8gb and 512gb. Still works with everything, I may update it next year for m4 and m5 air

 

[DocMultimedia]

With all the great news, it's definitely time for the "AAPL hits an all time high stock price" post. 🤑😀

The Neo really hit the market at the right time. Budgets a bit tight, so the low price for a decent computer hits the sweet spot.