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

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
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.

Related Roundup: MacBook Pro 14 & 16"
Related Forum: MacBook Pro

Top Rated Comments

al256 Avatar
28 months ago
Imagine making laptops consumers actually want versus some designer's vanity project...
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DesertNomad Avatar
28 months ago

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.
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TAZ911 Avatar
28 months ago
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.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
HeavenDynamic Avatar
28 months ago
There's also serious problems of quality control with these new Macs. It took me 4 remplacements before finding one that wasn't scratched or dented right out of the box.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
28 months ago
Chip shortage is in full effect! I hope this won’t be the case this year. Hopefully, Apple secures the order with the suppliers more smoothly.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
alexe Avatar
28 months ago

I played around with the new MBPs at BestBuy yesterday, that notch in the screen was driving me nuts! It is funny how the new heft these machines have is very noticeable coming from the 16" MBP. The return of the MagSafe was a welcome sight for sure.
I honestly don't understand how people care about that notch so much, to the point where it "drives them nuts".

It's really just more screen real estate than you would otherwise have, that's all. What's not to love about that?

I've had my 16-inch M1 Max since November and don't notice the notch as a negative thing at all.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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