- Certain Mac minis and Mac Studio models are no longer available
- The shortage could be related to RAM and storage issues
- An update to the M5 chipset for these Macs is also expected soon
A few days ago we reported that certain Mac mini and Mac Studio configurations were showing long delays in their shipping times if you ordered directly from Apple, and the stock situation now appears to be even worse.
As discovered by 9to5Mac, certain models from these lines are now completely sold out in the US Apple Store. These include the Mac mini M4 with 32GB of RAM and the M3 Ultra Studio with 256GB of RAM, so the more expensive and higher-spec options seem to have been hit the hardest.
We’ve checked Apple stock levels in the UK and Australia, and the same configurations are listed as unavailable; you just can’t buy them right now. The models that are still available to buy or pick up at an Apple Store are experiencing significant delays of several months in some cases.
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This also appears to be more than a “mere” stock shortage: when Apple products become unavailable to purchase in this way, it usually means that they will be discontinued entirely, which is what happened with the Apple Mac Pro late last month.
M5 update incoming?
With no official comment from Apple yet, we can only speculate on what’s going on here, but it seems likely that the current memory and storage shortages caused by AI data center demand are having an effect on Apple’s production lines.
There is another angle here, however, and that is that updates to the M5 chip for Mac mini and Mac Studio are believed to be just around the corner. Apple may be depleting its stock to make room for new models that are about to be announced, or a combination of factors could be playing a role.
Reddit users have pointed to “crazy demand” for current models, partly due to Macs being used to run local AI, and the upcoming M5 update as the main reasons for the stock shortage. There are fewer mentions here of the RAM crisis, which Apple has so far been able to deal with quite successfully.
What is certain is that due to Apple’s ‘unified memory’ approach, where the RAM is soldered directly to the chipset, you can’t upgrade the RAM on these machines afterwards, so keep that in mind if you’re ordering.
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