MacBook Neo ‘sold out’ in Vietnam

MacBook Neo, priced at 16.5 million VND, will be available for pre-order from April 7 and delivered on April 10 in Vietnam. Retail systems say the MacBook Neo has a record number of orders compared to other Apple MacBook lines.

Some systems say the device is only available for pre-orders, and today’s buyers have to wait 3-5 days depending on the version. Some small stores in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are still available in all colors but in small quantities and priced from 17 million VND, which is 500,000 VND higher than the listed price.

Meanwhile, on Apple’s online sales site, device delivery time has now increased from 2-4 standard days to 2-3 weeks for general accounts and 3-4 weeks for education accounts. Apple’s official sales account on the e-commerce platform also converted Neo to pre-order with a minimum waiting time of 14 days.

“This is the first time a MacBook model has been sold out right after going on sale in Vietnam,” said Mr. Hoang Tung, representative of an Apple product distribution unit. Besides the appeal of the product, he believes that the reason is partly due to the low number of machines supplied to the Vietnamese market in the first phase. “Neo also sells well in many other regions of the world while Vietnam is not a top priority market,” he analyzed.

Mr. Hoang Tuan, a longtime Apple product dealer in Hue Street (Hanoi), believes that the out of stock on Apple Store Online may be because many Vietnamese people use educational accounts to receive good prices. According to Apple’s policy, pupils, students, and people working in the education industry can buy MacBook Neo for from 14 million, 2.5 million VND cheaper than the announced price.

Previously, Mr. Nguyen Lac Huy, representative of CellPhoneS, said that MacBook Neo received more than 100 paid pre-orders after four hours on April 7. The system also received more than 4,000 customers leaving information of interest right after the product launched. This is the highest level of interest and orders ever among MacBook lines in the system.

MacBook Neo is Apple’s first laptop to use a chip similar to the iPhone instead of Intel or M series chips. With its low price, the device is considered a big challenge to Windows laptop models in the 10-20 million VND segment. Previously, at a company meeting on March 10, Mr. SY Hsu, co-CEO of Asus, commented that the MacBook Neo’s price of 599 USD was really a shock to the Windows computer industry.

Apple’s laptop uses a monolithic aluminum frame with a design similar to the MacBook Air and a 13-inch screen. The weight of the device is 1.2 kg, slightly lighter than a MacBook Air of the same size. Similar to other low-priced Apple models, the product has many colors to choose from: light pink, indigo blue, silver and gold.

Having a cheap price, good battery and “true Apple” design, Neo also faces many doubts about its actual performance. The device only has 8 GB of RAM and the use of an iPhone chip also makes many people worry that software compatibility may not be as good as the traditional M chip.