That looks like scale. Common treatment is to spray dormant oil in early spring. Lime/Sulfur, Bordeuax mix, may also be used.

Here is a link that might be useful: Scale on Apple tress.

Any chance of more pictures....a clear close-up?

Any chance of more pictures....a clear close-up?

@rhizo: That was as close as I could get...camera wouldn't focus once I got closer.

Most likely woolly apple aphids. Some kinds of apples are affected more often, and worse, than others.

The glitch in managing them is that part of the population is on the root system and impossible to eradicate.

If you have any sort of warranty from the seller, I'd contact them immediately to tell (& perhaps show images) then ask for a rebate. I'd be leery of getting a different apple tree from the same source -- very possible all their stock is infested.

Here's a blurb from the Univ of CA
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/GARDEN/FRUIT/PESTS/woolyapaph.html

Here is a link that might be useful: woolly apple aphids