With new product debuts, Apple fans in Australia and New Zealand are always the first to get their hands on updated devices on launch day due to time zone differences. It's officially Tuesday, June 13 in those two countries, which means customers who pre-ordered a new 15-inch MacBook Air, M2 Ultra Mac Studio, or Mac Pro last week have started receiving their shipments.
Apple introduced the new Macs at the WWDC keynote on June 5 and started accepting orders on that date. In addition to shipments being delivered on June 13, that date also marks the beginning of in-store availability. New Zealand does not have official Apple retail locations, so customers in Australia will be the first to be able to purchase an updated Mac in an Apple Store.
We aren't expecting product shortages, but available stock in Australia will give us an idea of what we can expect in other Apple Stores around the world.
The 15.3-inch MacBook Air is largely identical in design and performance to the 13.6-inch model that came out last June, but it is equipped with a larger display and a new six speaker sound system. It uses the same M2 chips that were introduced in the 2022 13-inch MacBook Air, and it has the same look.
As for the Mac Studio and the Mac Pro, neither have received design updates, but the machines are equipped with the newly introduced M2 Ultra chip. The M2 Ultra offers up to 20 percent faster CPU performance compared to the M1 Ultra chip.
Pricing on the 15-inch MacBook Air starts at $1,299, while the Mac Studio is priced starting at $2,000 for the base M2 Max version and $4,000 for the base M2 Ultra model. The Mac Pro is priced starting at $6,999, and all models ship with the M2 Ultra chip.
Following New Zealand and Australia, sales and deliveries of the updated Macs will kick off in Asia, Europe, and North America, respectively. Apple retail locations will be opening at their regular times for walk-in purchases and pickups of reserved devices.
