Order now, wait until August for some of Apple’s best-ever Mac hardware

Order now, wait until August for some of Apple’s best-ever Mac hardware

What you need to know

People buying a new Mac or display could be waiting until the middle of August before it arrives.
Ongoing component shortages and pandemic restrictions continue to cause Apple supply chain headaches.

Buying a new Mac isn’t as easy as it should be right now.

If you need some of Apple’s best Mac products in a hurry, you’re going to be out of luck. Buying a new Mac Studio, MacBook Pro, or Studio Display right now will mean that you might get delivery in July. If you’re unlucky, you’ll be waiting until August.

Apple has struggled to keep some of its most professional-oriented products in stock for months now, but things seem to be getting worse. The Studio Display is the worst affected, with Apple saying that orders placed now could take up to 10 weeks to arrive on your doorstep. It doesn’t matter whether you choose the nano-texture glass or which stand you choose — Apple says that the quickest you’ll see your monitor is eight weeks.

It’s a similar story with Mac Studio, especially if you want to go for the very best Apple silicon there is. New M1 Ultra machines show a delivery window going all the way to July 29, depending o the configuration you choose. Those going all-in with 8TB of storage, upgraded RAM, and the 64-core GPU option could wait up to 12 weeks — the middle of August.

New 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pro buyers will fare no better, with very similar wait times being displayed at the time of writing. Unless you fall lucky and find a local Apple Store with stock of the configuration you need, you’re going to be in for a long wait.

While the Mac Studio is undoubtedly the best Mac Apple has ever made in all kinds of ways, not least that M1 Ultra chip, none of that matters if you can’t get your hands on one. Ongoing manufacturing issues caused by component shortages and the COVID-19 pandemic aren’t helping, of course, and with the new iPhone 14 launch just a few months away we have to hope that things are beginning to settle down by then.

Apple isn’t the only one suffering, of course. Carmakers are also finding it increasingly difficult to meet demand, with BMW recently announcing that it will ship cars without CarPlay support due to chip shortages.