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Three months after their launch, the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros continue to experience high demand and seemingly short supply, with shipping dates for both models stretching into multiple weeks in several of Apple's key markets.

macbook-pro-14-16-2021.jpg

In the United States, the baseline 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M1 Pro chip is estimated to ship in three to four weeks, promising an arrival by at least mid-February. The 14-inch MacBook Pro with the higher-end M1 Pro configuration or the M1 Max chip faces an even longer wait, heading well into at least early March.

With the larger 16-inch model, the baseline configuration is seeing five to six weeks for estimated delivery, with higher configurations seeing shipping dates estimated to be in late February or early March. In the United Kingdom and Canada, the highest-end 16-inch MacBook Pro shows shipping dates of between five and eight weeks on Apple's online store at the time of writing.

There are several reasons for the continued long wait that Apple customers are experiencing with Apple's latest MacBook Pros. Apple has continued to suffer the consequences of a global chip shortage that cost the company $6 billion last quarter, pandemic-related restrictions possibly limiting device production, on top of high demand for the latest laptops given their major redesign.

With the new MacBook Pros, Apple brought back many features highly requested by longtime Mac users, such as additional ports including HDMI, MagSafe, and an SD card slot. Apple also redesigned the MacBook Pros, making them heavier and thicker to accommodate the more powerful M1 Pro and M1 Max chips.

Apple will announce Q1 2022 earnings later this week where it's expected to provide insight on the sales of the iPhone 13, AirPods 3, the new MacBook Pros, and other new products it announced in the fall.

Article Link: Three Months After Launch, Apple Still Struggling to Meet Demand for Redesigned 14-Inch and 16-Inch MacBook Pro
 

Dwalls90

macrumors 603
Feb 5, 2009
5,426
4,391
Obviously these are awesome notebooks, but there are several Apple products that are still not in-stock online or in many brick and mortar stores. I'd attribute this mostly to supply chain issues and chip shortages, but surely high demand can also be true too.
 
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ruka.snow

macrumors 68000
Jun 6, 2017
1,886
5,182
Scotland
Got the 32 GB M1 Pro 14 inch no bother at the start of the year. Hopefully in the next version we can get more TB4 ports as losing the 4th one is slowing me down a wee bit as a photographer. The SD slot taking up space is still a odd choice in exchange for a TB4 port in the age of cameras with dual CF Express B and eagerly awaiting the 2 Gbps CF Express B and CF Express 2.0 standard.
 

Mactech20

macrumors regular
Jun 21, 2021
111
255
Got the 32 GB M1 Pro 14 inch no bother at the start of the year. Hopefully in the next version we can get more TB4 ports as losing the 4th one is slowing me down a wee bit as a photographer. The SD slot taking up space is still a odd choice in exchange for a TB4 port in the age of cameras with dual CF Express B and eagerly awaiting the 2 Gbps CF Express B and CF Express 2.0 standard.
Kinda agree here. An older slow SD card slot like the one on the MacBook pros I could see being used by a newbie photographer or something? Seems like it would be more helpful on a lower end system like a MacBook Air, who knows. I'm just beyond thrilled I have an HDMI port!
 

ruka.snow

macrumors 68000
Jun 6, 2017
1,886
5,182
Scotland
Kinda agree here. An older slow SD card slot like the one on the MacBook pros I could see being used by a newbie photographer or something? Seems like it would be more helpful on a lower end system like a MacBook Air, who knows. I'm just beyond thrilled I have an HDMI port!
I think SD is more for sound engineers now. Newbie photographers can plug directly in, wireless transfer, or their camera will have CF Express A, B, XQD, or even CF. A newb photographer is likely going to buy a second hand full frame like a Canon 5D Mk3/4 or a Nikon D810/850 and that means CF or XQD cards.

When going into meetings or presentations I am given a TB3 cable to connect to a hub/dock that is connected to the projector, keyboard, mouse, and often a pointer or clicker. Though I can see HDMI being useful in some areas of the world. The option of a TB3 hub/dock means that the projector could be rocking SVGA or HDMI and as a presenter I am non the wiser.
 

headlessmike

macrumors 65816
May 16, 2017
1,171
2,418
It’s not just MacBook Pros that are in shortage. I ordered a Smart Folio case for my new iPad mini back in November and the estimated date keeps getting pushed back. Currently it’s delivery date is mid-February.
 

DesertNomad

macrumors 6502a
Jun 25, 2008
583
1,112
Nevada
Kinda agree here. An older slow SD card slot like the one on the MacBook pros I could see being used by a newbie photographer or something? Seems like it would be more helpful on a lower end system like a MacBook Air, who knows. I'm just beyond thrilled I have an HDMI port!

As a pilot, I love the SD card slot as our aircraft's avionics get database updates every 28 days using SD cards.
 

TAZ911

macrumors regular
Sep 11, 2014
100
85
Hard to get stuff to shelves when truckers aren’t moving freight. Freight that seems to be still stuck on ships. Add to that manufacturing slow downs pretty much across the globe. Add to that raw materials shortages…

There are consequences to living just in time with supply chains stretched around the globe that get impacted by internationally political whims.

There are consequences to shutting down a system that took decades to prime and debug.

This is going to be an ongoing thing for years as new gremlins are found and fixed. Not to mention random political asshattery from all corners of the globe.
 

TechRunner

macrumors 65816
Oct 28, 2016
1,245
2,136
SW Florida, US
Hard to get stuff to shelves when truckers aren’t moving freight. Freight that seems to be still stuck on ships. Add to that manufacturing slow downs pretty much across the globe. Add to that raw materials shortages…

There are consequences to living just in time with supply chains stretched around the globe that get impacted by internationally political whims.

There are consequences to shutting down a system that took decades to prime and debug.

This is going to be an ongoing thing for years as new gremlins are found and fixed. Not to mention random political asshattery from all corners of the globe.
Two years ago, I would have said you were being negative, and asked if you'd had your coffee yet haha. Today, I'd say you're a realist. How times have changed...
 

greenbreadmmm

macrumors 6502a
Jun 4, 2007
564
1,076
Is this why Apple is dragging feet on a mini revision with M1Max?

I get it, profit margin is prolly lowest on the mini, but gee whiz i really really need that computer and running out of ability to wait.
 

PaunchyPirate

macrumors newbie
Jan 23, 2014
7
2
Pittsburgh
My 14" MacBook Pro is on the Fedex truck for delivery today! I'm anxiously watching out my window for the truck. I purchased it in early January and the original estimated delivery date was February 2-9. Then when it shipped last week from China, the date changed to January 31. Over the weekend, it landed in Memphis and made it on to my local truck in Northwest PA this morning. I added storage to the base 14" model and that extended the original delivery time.

Fingers crossed that Fedex doesn't mis-deliver it like they did my sneakers a few months ago. I never did see them even though I was home at the time they say they delivered them.
 
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IamTimCook

Suspended
Dec 13, 2016
264
661
As a pilot, I love the SD card slot as our aircraft's avionics get database updates every 28 days using SD cards.
And here lays the problem. We as consumers lost a TB4 port so a few niche industry wouldn’t have to step foot in the 21st century. Pandering to audio engineers and “smaller” airline companies was disappointing. And I would argue it’s niche in the professional audio scene to use SD.

To say it was for photographers is BS; no one uses SD in photography minus already mentioned newbies.
Updating your plane’s avionics with an SD is just as dated as me updating my OS with a DVD.
 

Polymorphic

macrumors regular
Dec 23, 2010
164
453
Got the 32 GB M1 Pro 14 inch no bother at the start of the year. Hopefully in the next version we can get more TB4 ports as losing the 4th one is slowing me down a wee bit as a photographer. The SD slot taking up space is still a odd choice in exchange for a TB4 port in the age of cameras with dual CF Express B and eagerly awaiting the 2 Gbps CF Express B and CF Express 2.0 standard.

Not to discount the annoyance that can be caused by losing a port that you're used to having, but something that's easy to miss about the new MacBook Pros is that they have more Thunderbolt bandwidth than the previous models, because each port has a dedicated controller, whereas the previous generation had one controller per side (with each controller servicing two ports).
 
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