- Certain Mac minis and Mac Studio models are no longer available
- The failure may be related to problems with RAM and storage
- An update to the M5 chipset for these Macs is also expected soon
A few days ago we reported that certain configurations of the Mac mini and Mac Studio were experiencing extended delays in their delivery times if you ordered directly from Apple – and the stock situation now appears to be even worse.
As seen by 9to5Mac, certain models in these lines are now completely sold out at the Apple Store in the US. These include the M4 Mac mini with 32GB of RAM and the M3 Ultra Studio with 256GB of RAM, so the higher spec and more expensive options seem to have been hit hardest.
We’ve checked stock levels at Apple in the UK and Australia, and the same configurations show up as unavailable – you simply can’t buy them right now. The models that can still be purchased or picked up at an Apple Store are showing significant delays of several months in some cases.
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This also seems to be more than a “mere” stock shortage: when Apple products become unavailable to buy in this way, it usually means that they are completely discontinued, which is what happened with the Apple Mac Pro at the end of last month.
M5 update incoming?
With no official comment from Apple yet, we can only speculate about what’s going on here – but it seems likely that the ongoing shortage of memory and storage caused by AI data center demand is having an effect on Apple’s production lines.
There is another angle here though, which is that M5 chip updates for the Mac mini and Mac Studio are believed to be around the corner. Apple may be running low on inventory to make room for new models that are about to be announced — or a combination of factors could all be at play.
Users on Reddit have pointed to “crazy demand” for the current models – partly due to Macs being used to run local AIs – 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 navigate fairly successfully.
What is certain is that due to Apple’s ‘unified memory’ approach, where the RAM is soldered directly onto the chipset, you can’t upgrade the RAM on these machines afterwards – so keep that in mind if you’re placing orders.
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