Incoming Apple CEO John Ternus realized that there’s massive potential for Apple to launch an affordable notebook for the mass market, which is why he kept pushing for the MacBook Neo to materialize. While analysts and critics alike assumed that a low-cost machine would introduce a ton of compromises, the sales tell another tale, and during Apple’s Q3 2026 earnings call , the company reveals that Mac sales grew more than 25 percent compared to Q2 2026, and it’s all thanks to the affordable portable Mac.
For the quarter that ended on June 27, Apple says it shipped $10.35 billion worth of Macs, up 28.7 percent from $8.05 billion in the same period a year ago. In 2025, the cheapest portable Mac in Apple’s lineup was the MacBook Air, and its $1,000 price limited the market penetration the Cupertino firm hoped for.
Fortunately, John Ternus saw the potential of the MacBook Neo and stood his ground for its release. It turns out that his call was the right one. At $599 before the price hike , which forced Apple to make the MacBook Neo $100 more expensive, it still oozes incredible value. Also, for those claiming that Apple’s affordable notebook has caused a decline in gross margins, Max Weinbach has mentioned Apple’s statement from the latest earnings call.
“Products gross margin was 40.1%, up 140 basis points sequentially. This also included a benefit from the tariff refunds, which had a favorable impact of over 2.5%.”
One of the markets that brought sizable traction for the MacBook Neo was education. For instance, in the last quarter, half of the MacBook Neo purchases by U.S. education institutions have displaced Windows laptops and Chromebooks. Pinellas County Schools, one of the largest districts in Florida, transitioned 25,000 students to the MacBook Neo across its 18 high schools.
Sadly, supply constraints of the A18 Pro , the SoC powering the MacBook Neo’s innards, limited the machine’s true potential, with an analyst saying that shipments could witness a 40 percent drop in 2026 . Despite this drawback, this hardware is a primary reason Apple has seen a positive quarter in the segment.
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