Image: IDG
Maybe you read that Apple can’t avoid raising prices anymore and will have to do so very soon. So you decide to buy that high-end Mac Studio right now to avoid a potential price hike. Good idea.
But if you try to order a 32-core M3 Ultra Mac Studio on Apple.com, you’ll see that the machine isn’t available for 2-hour delivery, and worse yet, it won’t ship for another 13 to 14 weeks. It’s entirely possible that it won’t ship until after Apple’s fall iPhone presentation, and you’ll be sitting there learning about the new folding iPhone while still waiting for your M3 Ultra Mac Studio.
It gets even worse. Apple is offering only the 96GB memory configuration as the maximum for any Mac Studio. That’s actually the only memory configuration you can get with any M3 Ultra model. Previously, Apple discontinued both the 256GB and 512GB options. You can get as much storage as you want, and Apple says all options ship on the same date.
The M3 Ultra Mac Studio still starts at $3,999/£4,199, and an upgrade to the most powerful chip with a 32-core CPU and an 80-core GPU is an additional $1,500/£1,500, but it sounds like those prices could increase in the coming weeks. Will the higher prices help alleviate the shipping delays? That remains to be seen.
It doesn’t appear that shopping for an M3 Ultra Mac Studio at a third-party retailer is a viable alternative, either. Amazon doesn’t sell the Mac Studio, and Adorama and B&H in the U.S. don’t have any in stock. In the U.K., you can find it at KRCS, but it will take 6 to 8 weeks to ship. The M4 Max Mac Studios are easier to find, but they’re also in limited supply.
Apple will do what it can to fix the problem, but it is at the mercy of the market–it can’t get the components if they simply aren’t available. And since we don’t know what this means for the M5 Ultra, if you’re in the market for a Mac you need for production work, you might have no choice but to pay more and wait.
Author: Roman Loyola, Senior Editor, Macworld
Roman is a Macworld Senior Editor with over 30 years of experience covering the tech industry, focusing on the Mac and other products in the Apple ecosystem. He is also the host of the Macworld Podcast. His career started at MacUser, where he received Apple certification as a repair technician (when Apple did that kind of thing). He’s also worked for MacAddict, MacLife, and TechTV.
