Mini-LED Shortages Reportedly Delayed Production of Redesigned MacBook Pro Models

[MacRumors]

A shortage of mini-LED components has reportedly been the cause of delays to the production of the redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros, according to a published report today by DigiTimes.

Yesterday, DigiTimes provided a snippet of today's reporting outlining that shipments of the redesigned Apple silicon MacBook Pros are forecasted to begin in the third quarter of the year. According to the full report published today, Apple had planned to produce these new MacBook Pros in the second quarter of 2021, but a shortage of mini-LED display components forced it to push it into the next quarter.

The sources revealed that Apple originally planned to mass-produce the two notebooks in the second quarter, but has pushed the schedule back due to the weaker-than-expected yield rates for miniLED modules.

Apple on Monday held its annual Worldwide Developers Conference keynote, and despite some rumors suggesting the new MacBook Pros could be announced, no hardware at all debuted during the event. Reliable Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman continues to report that these new MacBook Pros could launch as soon as early this summer.

The redesigned MacBook Pros are expected to come in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes and will feature an Apple silicon chip with improved performance and energy efficiency over the M1, announced this past November. They'll also feature updated designs, including removing the Touch Bar, more squared-off edges, and a mini-LED display which recently launched in the M1 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

Article Link: Mini-LED Shortages Reportedly Delayed Production of Redesigned MacBook Pro Models

 

[farewelwilliams]

DigiTimes' source: Prosser

so he has an excuse "SEE I WAS RIGHT, IT WAS JUST DELAYED".

 

[Bug-Creator]

Might be or not be....

The M1X that is/was supposed to go into these did appear in a leaked (or maybe faked) benchmark late last year.
That chip would have made perfect sense in the 2 fan versions of the new iMac or to replace the spacegrey Minis.

So now we are at halftime of the 2 year transition to AS and Apple has successfully taken step 1 out of the needed 4-6 (depending on how powerful you expect a MacPro-AS to be).

 

[TrenttonY]

Hype your "scoop" for new Macs at WWDC, then 2 days later magically get another "scoop" that they were always going to be delayed.

funny how that works.

 

[LFC2020]

Another 5 minutes, another digitimes article. ?

Slow news day macrumors? ?

 

[aw70]

Although it unfortunately seems increasingly unlikely that the touch bar will survive, I do hope everybody is wrong about this. At least on my current M1 MB Pro, the touch bar is actually very useful: much more than I had assumed it would be. Going back to a row of hard-wired physical function keys in their place would feel like stepping down several notches with regard to functionality. To the extent that I'd consider not getting one of the new M2 MB Pro, if that was indeed the case. The current set-up with a physical "Esc" and power button left and right, and the bar for everything else, is pretty perfect. IMHO, that is.

Now that I have some months of hands on time with the M1 MB Pro, I'd even say that the return of the magsafe adapter is not 100% welcome. One uses a docking station with these things anyway, and one standard connector that does everything has a lot going for it. But unlike the touch bar (the loss of which would be a significant downside, with nothing good about it), magsafe returning is a toss-up: the "snap off cleanly" magnetic connector is definitely handy. And I'd assume one could charge the MB Pro via USB3 as well anyway.

 

[Trenches]

I believe this. It makes sense.

 

[BvizioN]

DigiTimes' source: Prosser

so he has an excuse "SEE I WAS RIGHT, IT WAS JUST DELAYED".

At least he did not gamble with his body hair this time.

 

[James Godfrey]

With the battery capacities getting listed on the Chinese regulatory database around the same time as the iPhones, I think 100% these are coming in the fall.

Yes Gurman said we should expect new MBP’s ‘as early as this summer’ but that is a clever choice of words, he is highly likely unsure, otherwise he would say new MacBook Pro’s are planned for a summer launch or something to that effect.

I fully expect an M1X unveiling towards the end of the year announcing new MacBook Pro’s, iMac Pro and High end Mac Mini, these new MBP’s haven’t even been reported to have entered mass production yet which is normally about 6-8 weeks before launch, this already takes us to late July early August.

If no reports of them entering mass production by the end of this month I think it’s safe to say it’s a fall release.

 

[madebybela]

Although it unfortunately seems increasingly unlikely that the touch bar will survive, I do hope everybody is wrong about this. At least on my current M1 MB Pro, the touch bar is actually very useful: much more than I had assumed it would be. Going back to a row of hard-wired physical function keys in their place would feel like stepping down several notches with regard to functionality. To the extent that I'd consider not getting one of the new M2 MB Pro, if that was indeed the case. The current set-up with a physical "Esc" and power button left and right, and the bar for everything else, is pretty perfect. IMHO, that is.

Now that I have some months of hands on time with the M1 MB Pro, I'd even say that the return of the magsafe adapter is not 100% welcome. One uses a docking station with these things anyway, and one standard connector that does everything has a lot going for it. But unlike the touch bar (the loss of which would be a significant downside, with nothing good about it), magsafe returning is a toss-up: the "snap off cleanly" magnetic connector is definitely handy. And I'd assume one could charge the MB Pro via USB3 as well anyway.

i personally think most, if not all of the design related leaks regarding Macs are wrong.

Like, leaks regarding the specs/chips are usually correct, but rarely have they gotten the design right. Renders of the new iMac were horribly off and everyone expected a major redesign with the 2019 16" MacBook Pro too. Hell I don't think anyone even expected the M1 Mac mini.

Obviously I got nothing to base this on other than pure gut feeling, but honestly, anyone's guess here is as good as most of the "leakers" until we actually see the dang thing.

My only possible defense for the Touch Bar is that they implemented it into iPadOS' Sidecar feature. All these things are planned years in advance, so I wouldn't understand why they'd bring back attention to it if they were planning on deprecating it.

 

[David1986H]

Wasn't there a report a while a go saying that production of mini-led displays had over come a manufacturing problem and they could now produce more with less failed rates?

 

[James Godfrey]

Wasn't there a report a while a go saying that production of mini-led displays had over come a manufacturing problem and they could now produce more with less failed rates?

I think that was for the iPad Pro could be wrong though.

i personally think most, if not all of the design related leaks regarding Macs are wrong.

Like, leaks regarding the specs/chips are usually correct, but rarely have they gotten the design right. Renders of the new iMac were horribly off and everyone expected a major redesign with the 2019 16" MacBook Pro too. Hell I don't think anyone even expected the M1 Mac mini.

Obviously I got nothing to base this on other than pure gut feeling, but honestly, anyone's guess here is as good as most of the "leakers" until we actually see the dang thing.

My only possible defense for the Touch Bar is that they implemented it into iPadOS' Sidecar feature. All these things are planned years in advance, so I wouldn't understand why they'd bring back attention to it if they were planning on deprecating it.

At this point it would not surprise me if we don’t get any sort of redesign and just an M1X is thrown into the current design

 

[richinaus]

I think that was for the iPad Pro could be wrong though.


At this point it would not surprise me if we don’t get any sort of redesign and just an M1X is thrown into the current design

No redesign = no buy from me. But tbh I am stopping thinking about this for now.
Wake me up in October.

In the meantime I will be buying a workstation PC laptop

 

[Bug-Creator]

At this point it would not surprise me if we don’t get any sort of redesign and just an M1X is thrown into the current design

Doubtful, to much exterior stuff for the MP, the next MBA and pedestrian Mini have leaked. I'd say a replacement for the spacegrey Minis was (and maybe still is) the only viable "old design new chip" product.

 

[zedsdead]

This sounds right. There were way too many leaks for the MacBook Pro's, plus it was the right place to release it. We can see the shortages hitting the other product lines.

 

[DMG35]

This MacBook Pro can't possibly live up to the hype that has been generated in here.

 

[kieguru]

Even if it was delayed due to a bad components yield, it makes sense for Apple to release new hardware with Monterey in the autumn.

 

[familychoice]

Although it unfortunately seems increasingly unlikely that the touch bar will survive, I do hope everybody is wrong about this. At least on my current M1 MB Pro, the touch bar is actually very useful: much more than I had assumed it would be. Going back to a row of hard-wired physical function keys in their place would feel like stepping down several notches with regard to functionality. To the extent that I'd consider not getting one of the new M2 MB Pro, if that was indeed the case. The current set-up with a physical "Esc" and power button left and right, and the bar for everything else, is pretty perfect. IMHO, that is.

The touchbar is great on my 16” MBP, particularly handy for volume control.

Edit: seems I’ve made a controversial statement here. Regardless, being able to change volume, which I do a lot, using an onscreen slider is quicker than tapping +/- buttons.

 

[James Godfrey]

Doubtful, to much exterior stuff for the MP, the next MBA and pedestrian Mini have leaked. I'd say a replacement for the spacegrey Minis was (and maybe still is) the only viable "old design new chip" product.

The issue we have is the only actual leak we have had is the ransom attack, which could of quite easily of been an older or a model planned in a year or two, and it features USB-A (which I highly doubt apple are going to bring to the MBP)

In regards to prosser’s MBA leak that seems plausible with the base iMac coming in colours, but it was only leaked after the redesigned iMac, so it’s a no brainier and yet another click bait leak, yes prosser leaked colours coming to the iMac but his sources had no clue about the white bezels situation whatsoever and also had no clue about the two tone design or the full glass front.

 

[Minxy]

With the battery capacities getting listed on the Chinese regulatory database around the same time as the iPhones, I think 100% these are coming in the fall.

Yes Gurman said we should expect new MBP’s ‘as early as this summer’ but that is a clever choice of words, he is highly likely unsure, otherwise he would say new MacBook Pro’s are planned for a summer launch or something to that effect.

I fully expect an M1X unveiling towards the end of the year announcing new MacBook Pro’s, iMac Pro and High end Mac Mini, these new MBP’s haven’t even been reported to have entered mass production yet which is normally about 6-8 weeks before launch, this already takes us to late July early August.

If no reports of them entering mass production by the end of this month I think it’s safe to say it’s a fall release.

All leakers said the new MacBook Pros would be announced at WWDC. It's funny how Digitimes sources knew nothing about a delay BEFORE WWDC but predicted a delay after the MBPs were not shown! So let me make share some information from my 'inside sources' (ahem), we should expect new MacBook Pros as early as this year.

 

[Sandstorm]

I'd seriously prefer if Apple released the new M-chip 14"/16" MBP ASAP, with the current & still very good screen tech. Let the mini-LED tech mature & release update next year.

 

[dazt11]

Make sense, they should push to release before the school period starts. Feel sorry for you who bought the M1 now because you dissapointed the new MBP didn't get released last WWDC 2021. Should've waited a bit

 

[James Godfrey]

Make sense, they should push to release before the school period starts. Feel sorry for you who bought the M1 now because you dissapointed the new MBP didn't get released last WWDC 2021. Should've waited a bit

But remember the current M1 MBP which is a perfectly capable machine is currently getting discounts here in the UK at least, I saved over £100 off Apples price on mine at £1189 (normally £1299).

These new MBP’s will start at a minimum of £1649 ($1799) they are two completely different product price points.

The extra £500 is for a potentially a slight redesign, potentially no Touch Bar, maybe more ports, maybe a better screen, maybe a better webcam and a faster SoC.

 

[cool11]

So, at least, it is openly admitted, that for most users, touch bar was almost useless.
Bravo Apple!
It would be nice if we saw a price drop in the new models without touch bar.

 

[James Godfrey]

So, at least, it is openly admitted, that for most users, touch bar was almost useless.
Bravo Apple!
It would be nice if we saw a price drop in the new models without touch bar.

Doubt thats going to happen tbh, I am pretty sure the cost will increase especially if it gets miniLED, I expect $1999 base price.