9to5Mac Daily: April 7, 2026 – Apple’s MacBook Neo quandary

Welcome to 95 Mac Daily for Tuesday, April 7th, 2026. I'm your host, Chance Miller. We are sponsored this week by Backblaze. Leading off today thanks to the new possibilities afforded by AI coding tools, the App Store is seeing a resurgence in new app submissions. A new report says that while app submissions to the App Store fell 46% between 2016 and 2024, the number of new apps that showed up on the App Store globally suddenly exploded last year, growing 30% compared to 2024. The report is based on data from analytics company Sensor Tower and suggests that the main contributor to the search in new apps is Vibe coding tools, such as Anthropics, Claude Code, and OpenAI's Codex. It's difficult to determine how many of these new apps are actually made using AI, but there's clearly a link between that dramatic increase in App Store submissions and the increasing prevalence of these AI tools. Apple said to the information that this wave of submissions reflects the relevance of the App Store. The information also notes that the search in new apps might be putting extra strain on Apple's App Store review teams. Some developers have reported extended wait times when submitting new apps to the App Store and submitting updates to existing apps. Apple, however, denied that review times are getting longer. The company said the App Store review team processes 90% of submissions within 48 hours, and over the last 12 weeks, the team has processed more than 200,000 app submissions a week, with an average review time of one and a half days. An Apple spokesperson also said that while a human reviews every app's submission, the company is increasingly using AI tools to assist in the process. And with WWDC 2026 right around the corner, it'll be interesting to see what changes Apple has planned for developers as the prevalence of these AI tools continues to advance. We're sponsored this week by Backblaze. If you're building apps, editing video, or managing client work on your Mac, your files change constantly. iCloud keeps everything in sync across your devices, which is great for access. Time Machine gives you a local backup, but what Backblaze does is adds an automatic off-site backup with version history so you can restore earlier versions or recover everything after a drive failure. You install it once and it just works in the background. For anyone who depends on their Mac every day, this type of setup makes sense. Start your free trial at backblaze.com-9to5Mac and use code 9to5daily for 20% off. My thanks to Backblaze for their support of the show. Next up today we have new rumors about what to expect from the upcoming foldable iPhone. First, a new supply chain report says that Apple has encountered new setbacks during the engineering test phase for the foldable device. The report explains that issues surrounding the engineering development of this device are more complex than a usual iPhone and are therefore taking more time to resolve than Apple had expected. In the worst case scenario, these engineering challenges could delay the first shipment of the foldable iPhone by months. One source quoted in the story says, quote, it's true that more issues than expected have emerged during early test production phases, and additional time will be needed to resolve them and make necessary adjustments. The current situation could put the mass production timeline at risk, end quote. The iPhone fold was already expected to launch after the other iPhone 18 Pro models. The iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max, and Fold were all expected to be announced in September, with the Pro models launching right away and the Fold launching sometime before the end of the year. What's unclear is whether today's supply chain report is just corroborating those initial delays or reporting on a new set of delays that could push the launch into 2027. If Apple was planning to launch the iPhone Fold in October or November, and has now hit more delays, then it doesn't have much wiggle room if it really wants to ship the device before the end of the year. Meanwhile, a separate rumor today says that the foldable iPhone won't be called the iPhone Fold, but rather the iPhone Ultra. This report should be treated with some skepticism, as naming is often one of the last details to leak about a new Apple product, if it leaks at all. Still, given the high end price point of the foldable iPhone and the premium target market, perhaps the iPhone Ultra name makes more sense than iPhone Fold. Running out today, the new MacBook Neo has been a smash hit and Apple will likely talk up its success during its next quarterly earnings call. But in what can be considered a good problem to have, Apple is facing a bit of a supply chain predicament. The MacBook Neo is powered by the A18 Pro chip, which is the same chip used in the iPhone 16 Pro. Respected supply chain analyst Tim Culpin is now reporting that Apple is actually running out of inventory of that A18 Pro chip. One of the ways Apple got the price of the MacBook Neo down was by using a leftover Bind version of the A18 Pro chip. These are basically versions of the chip that were destined for the iPhone 16 Pro, but were discarded for having a single defective GPU core. That's why the A18 Pro chip in the MacBook Neo has a 5-core GPU, while the iPhone 16 Pro's version of the chip has a 6-core GPU. So basically this means that for MacBook Neo production, Apple isn't actually making new A18 Pro chips. It's using leftover slightly defective versions of the chip from the iPhone 16 Pro cycle in 2024. Culpin says that Apple initially planned to make about 6 million MacBook Neos in total, using up the supply of that A18 Pro chip. But with demand for the MacBook Neo now looking to exceed that amount, Apple is in a bit of a predicament. Apple is apparently in conversations with its supply chain partners right now, trying to decide what to do. One option is that Apple pays TSMC a premium to start A18 Pro fabrication again. Although it's unclear exactly how much that would cost on a per-unit basis, it might force Apple to raise the price of the MacBook Neo to make it work. Actual production of the A18 Pro chip has already wound down, so Apple and TSMC would have to go out of their way and take up valuable supply chain resources to start production again. An alternative route might be for Apple to accelerate the production of the second generation MacBook Neo. This was originally planned for mid-2027 and is expected to use the A19 Pro chip, the same chip used in the iPhone 17 Pro. That is easier said than done, and Culpin also suggests that Apple might have to simply let MacBook Neo availability dwindle and bide its time until next year. That's obviously the least desirable option, as Apple doesn't want to leave present demand for the MacBook Neo unaccounted for. If you head to Apple's website right now, most configurations and colors of the MacBook Neo are sold out at Apple stores. If you place an order today, it'd be available for pickup at your local Apple store at the end of the month, likely around April 30th. Delivery estimates, meanwhile, are slightly better, with Apple quoting April 22 to April 29. This is obviously a sign of the continued strong demand for MacBook Neo, as Apple typically likes to keep inventory of its most popular configurations available for next day delivery or same day pickup at Apple stores. That wraps up another episode of 9 to 5 Mac Daily. As always, you can find all of the latest Apple news on 9to5mac.com, follow along with me on threads at Chance H. Miller, and we'll be back tomorrow for a new episode of 9 to 5 Mac Daily.