Writing in his latest Culpium newsletter, Culpan says that the runaway success of the entry-level laptop has left Apple paying more for the components inside it. As a result, he says new finishes are one option being weighed by Apple to keep enthusiasm high if those costs end up getting passed on to buyers. Starting at $599, the Neo is currently sold in Citrus, Blush, Indigo, and Silver.
Apple does not appear to have settled on which colors might join the lineup, and the report does not name any specific shades the company may be considering.
The pricing pressure is said to stem from Apple's decision to dramatically scale up production. After Neo demand outstripped initial expectations, Apple has reportedly asked suppliers to prepare capacity for 10 million units of the debut model, up from an earlier target of 5 to 6 million.
Shipping estimates on Apple's website currently sit at two to three weeks across the lineup in the U.S. and many other countries, with Quanta and Foxconn said to be racing to fill orders from factories in Vietnam and China.
However, meeting the doubled production target requires a fresh batch of A18 Pro chips from TSMC. The Neo uses the same system-on-chip as the iPhone 16 Pro, and Apple quickly exhausted its existing inventory filling early orders. The original run was made on TSMC's N3E process at least two years ago, and it is believed that TSMC has no spare 3nm capacity to allocate, as AI customers are sucking up much of the available output.
What's worse for Apple is that the first batch of A18 Pro chips were "binned" versions with minor defects that, rather than scrapping, were repurposed for the Neo by switching off one of the six GPU cores.
That means a new production run will result in top-tier chips rather than defective ones, which means a higher per-unit cost that Apple will have to pay even before TSMC adds a premium for expedited production.
DRAM prices have also climbed sharply since the Neo first went on sale -- again driven by AI data center build-out -- which has pushed the laptop's bill of materials higher still.
Culpan reports that Apple has not ruled out raising the Neo's price as a response.
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This article, "MacBook Neo Could Get New Colors to Cushion Potential Price Hike" first appeared on MacRumors.com
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