Apple's Mac Sales Hit a Fiscal Record Under John Ternus

Apple sold more Macs in fiscal 2026 than in any year in its history, and the company is pointing to that as evidence that demand for its computers is holding up even when supply is tight. Speaking on the fiscal fourth-quarter call, CEO John Ternus said, "We have never sold more Macs in a fiscal year than we did this time, which is a truly remarkable testament to these incredible products." Ternus became CEO on September 1st, and he used the call to make the case for the current Mac lineup.

Supply was the bottleneck, and sales still climbed

The record is more impressive than the headline suggests. Several Mac models were supply-constrained for much of the year, with demand running ahead of availability on key components. When parts are the limit, unit sales are capped by what can be built and shipped, so a new annual high means Apple moved more machines than its inventory would normally allow for at the same level of demand.

Apple is also warning that the pressure isn't over. The company expects supply constraints on Mac and iPad to continue into the December quarter, which it ties primarily to elevated memory demand. If you've been waiting on a particular configuration, that's worth keeping in mind. Stock on popular models may remain tight for a while, even as Apple's sales keep rising.

Where the growth came from

CFO Kevan Parekh credited the year's performance mostly to two product lines. The MacBook Neo, the more affordable model in the lineup, brought the Mac to new customers. The MacBook Pro continued to carry demand at the premium end. That split matters: a cheaper machine widens the funnel, while a high-end model keeps revenue per unit strong.

The numbers back that up. Mac revenue reached $10.8 billion in the September quarter, up 24 percent year over year. For the full fiscal year, Mac revenue came to $37.9 billion, up from $33.7 billion in fiscal 2025. By my math, that's a little over 12 percent growth across the year, which is solid for a category that has been growing more slowly than some of Apple's other businesses. Apple also reported gains in global market share and strong growth in emerging markets, which suggests the more affordable model is doing real work outside the company's traditional strongholds.

Here's the thing about the broader result: the record Mac year fed into Apple's best overall fiscal year on record, with total company revenue of $478.8 billion. The Mac isn't the largest piece of that number, but it's clearly helping the company's story.

The Philippines education deal

Apple points to one contract in particular as a major contributor to the MacBook Neo's momentum. It describes the agreement with the Philippines Department of Education (DepEd) as its largest-ever Mac education deal. The plan is to deploy roughly 170,000 to 172,654 MacBook Neo units to public school teachers and administrative staff. Of those, about 169,000 are allocated to teachers and roughly 3,600 to administrative officers. Deployment is scheduled to run from November 2026 through March 2027.

The price is the detail I'd look at first. DepEd secured the units at approximately ₱43,000 each, about $677, which Apple's materials describe as below the Philippine suggested retail price. The package includes a five-year warranty, which the department says is the longest in its laptop procurement history. It also covers productivity software, logistics and professional development.

Education deals like this one tend to work the same way. A large fleet order gives a vendor predictable volume and a long service relationship, while the buyer gets a lower unit cost and a longer support window. The training side is where the real test sits. Apple and DepEd plan to collaborate on GuroXL, a training framework designed to help educators pursue Apple Teacher certifications and bring the devices into classroom instruction. Whether teachers actually use the machines day to day will say more about the deal than the unit count does.

What to take from this

For most buyers, the headline is that the Mac is selling well and the MacBook Neo is reaching people who wouldn't have considered a Mac before. If you're shopping, the practical issue is supply rather than demand. Apple's own outlook says constraints on Mac and iPad will persist into the December quarter, so expect longer waits on some configurations and don't assume sudden stock improvements.

The next thing to watch is whether memory supply eases enough for Apple to clear its backlog. If the December quarter results show Mac unit growth holding up under those constraints, it will suggest the fiscal 2026 record wasn't a one-off. If they don't, the company's supply chain will be the story rather than the product lineup.