Apple Still Trying to Keep Up With M2 MacBook Air Demand Almost a Month After Launch

Almost a month after launch, demand for the new M2 MacBook Air continues to be high, with the notebook in relatively short supply. For just the baseline configuration, customers are facing up to a three-week wait, according to Apple's online store.

M2 MacBook Air Lifestyle
In the United States, Apple lists the ‌MacBook Air‌ as shipping out in two to three weeks for the baseline model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage. Other configurations with varying storage and memory options are listed with a one to two weeks shipping estimate.

The delay is untimely, as Apple is currently running a Back to School promotion for students preparing for classes this fall. The new ‌MacBook Air‌ may be an attractive purchase for students thanks to its lightweight and thin design and the battery life and performance enabled by the ‌M2‌ chip.

Apple has been facing supply chain constraints in recent months, but the situation does seem to be easing. Besides the long wait for the new ‌MacBook Air‌, most other Macs in Apple's lineup remain readily available for shipping with no weeks-long delay.

The highest-end Mac Studio and the 24-inch iMac with the M1 chip are the two exceptions. The ‌Mac Studio‌ is listed with shipping estimates of one month or longer, and customers looking for an ‌iMac‌ face a three- to four-week delay, according to Apple's store at the time of writing.

In the third quarter of the year, Apple's Mac business was severely constrained. Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Mac supply was so low for the quarter that it was difficult to gauge actual demand for Apple's latest computers:

In terms of testing the demand, you can't really test demand unless you have the supply. We were so far from that last quarter that we have an estimate of what we believe demand was, but it is an estimate. We recognize how the industry is doing, we think that we've got a great story with the Mac, getting M1 out and now M2 out, we have a very strong offering for the back to school season and we'll see how we do this quarter. We'll report back in October.

Mac revenue for Q3 of 2022 was down to $7.3B from $8.2B in the year-ago quarter.

Related Roundup: MacBook Air
Related Forum: MacBook Air

Top Rated Comments

cicalinarrot Avatar
17 months ago
If you’re a comment-section-genius and all of your knowledge about this mac comes from sites like this, you may think the M2 air is a horribly flawed product because the SSD.

However, in the real world, this is just the coolest laptop apple has ever delivered and it’s faster than what 99% of people who buy it could ever need.
Score: 41 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pdaholic Avatar
17 months ago
Just got my midnight M2 MBA a couple of days ago, it’s fantastic. Best Apple purchase I’ve made in a while.
Score: 36 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bluecoast Avatar
17 months ago
Nearly every reviewer on YT:
Don't buy the baseline M2 MBA under any circumstances - it's slow as molasses (you're obviously going to buy it to do 8k video editing, compositing and exporting everyday, right?).

Regular people:
I want the baseline MBA, just take my money.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Makosuke Avatar
17 months ago
Apple is one of the largest companies on earth, so one of course expects a lot of their manufacturing capability, but it's kind of amusing to see a headline acting as if it's abnormal to have still not caught up to demand a month after launch of a hot new product.

Earlier this year my org waited well over two months between order and delivery of some completely boring midrange Dell laptops getting toward the end of a product cycle. I don't even have a clue when the recent-release model we ordered last month will ship, but at this point I'm downright excited when I see a lead time of only 3 weeks on just about anything from Dell.

Then again, even coming up on 3 decades after, I've still never forgotten the pain of excitedly ordering a Power Macintosh 8600 then waiting at least 3 months for it to arrive only for the ADB port to be stone dead.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
incoherent_1 Avatar
17 months ago
Apple Silicon is the most underestimated breakthrough so far this decade. The sheer processing power + energy/battery savings alone is just blow away.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
wanha Avatar
17 months ago
Yes, Apple is struggling to keep up with demand.

Is Apple alone?

Hardly. Just try and buy a PS5 that's been out for nearly two years now.

Apple is handling the supply constraints better than any other company out there, but I understand headlines like this get people to click, so... here we are.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 17

iOS 17.2 Will Add These 12 New Features to Your iPhone

Friday December 1, 2023 12:19 pm PST by
iOS 17.2 has been in beta testing for over a month, and it should be released to all users in a few more weeks. The software update includes many new features and changes for iPhones, including the dozen that we have highlighted below. iOS 17.2 is expected to be released to the public in mid-December. To learn about even more features coming in the update, check out our full list. Journal ...
iOS 17

Apple Releases iOS 17.1.2 With Security Fixes

Thursday November 30, 2023 10:12 am PST by
Apple today released iOS 17.1.2 and iPadOS 17.1.2, small updates to the iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 operating systems that Apple introduced in September. iOS 17.1.2 and iPadOS 17.1.2 come a few weeks after the release of iOS 17.1.1, another bug fix update. iOS 17.1.2 and iPadOS 17.1.2 can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update....
iOS 17

28 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in December's iOS 17.2 Update

Friday December 1, 2023 2:57 am PST by
Apple made the first beta of iOS 17.2 available to developers in October. Since then we've seen three more betas, and with each iteration Apple continues to add more new features and changes, many of which users have been anticipating for quite a while. Below, we've listed 28 new things that are coming to your iPhone when the finalized version is publicly released this December. 1. Help...
apple card 1

Apple Ending Apple Card Partnership With Goldman Sachs

Tuesday November 28, 2023 3:09 pm PST by
Apple is ending its credit card partnership with Goldman Sachs, according to The Wall Street Journal. Apple plans to stop working with Goldman Sachs in the next 12 to 15 months, and it is not yet clear if Apple has established a new partnership for the Apple Card. Apple and Goldman Sachs will dissolve their entire consumer partnership, including the Apple Card and the Apple Savings account....
iOS 17

Everything New in iOS 17.2 Beta 4

Tuesday November 28, 2023 12:18 pm PST by
Apple is wrapping up development on iOS 17.2, with the update expected to come out in December. While we're getting to the end of the beta testing period, Apple is still tweaking features and adding new functionality. We've rounded up everything new in the fourth beta of iOS 17.2. Default Notification Sound Under Sounds & Haptics, there's a new "Default Alerts" section that allows you to ...
iPhone 16 Mock Header Updated 1

iPhone 16 to Include Action Button Across Entire Lineup

Thursday November 30, 2023 4:08 pm PST by
The release of the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max saw the introduction of an entirely new user-configurable button known as the Action button, and now, MacRumors has seen extensive evidence confirming Apple is planning to include the Action button on the entire iPhone 16 range. Designs and plans for the Action button date back to at least 2021, as the button was intended for release alongside hapt...
anker new xmas

Anker's Cyber Week Sale Enters Final Days With Up to 60% Off Sitewide

Friday December 1, 2023 12:05 pm PST by
Anker's Black Friday/Cyber Week event is entering its final days this weekend, and it's still offering up to 60 percent off sitewide. There are also a few "mystery boxes" that can include hundreds of dollars in savings, if you're willing to risk not knowing what you're buying ahead of time. All of these sales will end on December 3. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Anker. When you...
paramount plus logo

Apple and Paramount Considering Discounted TV+ Streaming Bundle

Friday December 1, 2023 4:40 am PST by
Apple and Paramount have discussed bundling their TV streaming services at a discount, according to a new report by The Wall Street Journal. The companies have talked about offering a combination of Paramount+ and Apple TV+ that would cost less than subscribing to both services separately, according to people familiar with the discussions. The discussions are in their early stages, and it is ...
General Apps Messages

Green Bubbles on iPhone to Gain These 7 New Features Next Year

Thursday November 30, 2023 9:00 am PST by
Earlier this month, Apple announced that it will finally support RCS in the Messages app on the iPhone starting later next year. This change will result in several improvements to the messaging experience between iPhones and Android devices. RCS will become the new default standard for messaging between iPhones and Android devices, but these conversations will still have green bubbles like...