By Hamza Faisal
The Philippines has bought 172,654 Apple MacBook Neo laptops for public school teachers and administrative staff, in what Apple chief executive John Ternus called the company's biggest education deal ever for the Mac. The Department of Education (DepEd) announced on November 3 that competitive bidding for the laptops had concluded, with deliveries scheduled from November 2026 through March 2027.
Of the total, 169,008 laptops will go to teachers and 3,646 to administrative officers, distributed through the department's Computerization Program. The purchase takes the number of teacher laptops DepEd has contracted so far to 231,725, including 62,717 Windows-based units awarded earlier.
A discount, a five-year warranty and training included
Each MacBook Neo was secured at approximately 43,000 Philippine pesos, about 6,900 pesos below the base model's suggested retail price of 49,900 pesos — an estimated saving of around 1.19 billion pesos against retail. The package goes beyond the hardware: it includes built-in productivity software, delivery and logistics, and professional development for teachers.
The five-year warranty is a first for DepEd's laptop purchases, which have typically carried only a one-year warranty. Education Secretary Sonny Angara said the initiative aims to ease the financial burden on teachers who have had to buy their own computers or work with outdated equipment. DepEd is also collaborating with Apple on GuroXL, a training framework delivered through the National Educators Academy of the Philippines that will help teachers earn Apple Teacher certifications.
Apple's biggest Mac education deal
Ternus highlighted the deal on Apple's fourth-quarter 2026 earnings call, his first since succeeding Tim Cook in September. "We recently secured our biggest education deal ever for Mac, with the Department of Education in the Philippines. They're going to deploy 170,000 MacBook Neos to teachers and staff," he told analysts.
The MacBook Neo, launched in March as Apple's cheapest laptop, runs on the A18 Pro chip first used in iPhones, in a fanless aluminium chassis with all-day battery life. It is also the biggest deployment yet for the entry-level model. Rollout will feature cluster and mega-cluster launch events across Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, starting this month.
A milestone — but most teachers still wait
The deal is a milestone for the country's digital education roadmap, but it does not close the gap. The Alliance of Concerned Teachers said on Tuesday that about 75 percent of public school teachers still lack work laptops, noting the new purchase covers only around a quarter of the teaching workforce.
Timing adds another wrinkle: Apple told analysts on the same earnings call that Mac and iPad supplies would remain tight through the December quarter, exactly when DepEd's first deliveries are due. For the teachers receiving them, though, the laptops remove a long-standing out-of-pocket cost — and put an Apple machine on desks in 16,400 schools across the country.
