New MacBook Air and Mac Studio Will Have Day One Software Update

New MacBook Air and Mac Studio users who are expecting one of the machines later this week will need to install a day one software update to upgrade to the latest version of macOS Sequoia.

macOS Sequoia Night Feature
The M4 ‌MacBook Air‌ and M4 Max and M3 Ultra ‌Mac Studio‌ models will come with older versions of macOS installed. The ‌MacBook Air‌ models appear to ship with macOS Sequoia 15.2, while the ‌Mac Studio‌ models have macOS Sequoia 15.3 installed.

Apple released macOS Sequoia 15.3.1 back on February 10, but the ‌Mac Studio‌ and ‌MacBook Air‌ were clearly prepared for launch before that update came out. macOS 15.3.1 is not available for the new machines just yet, but Apple is likely to release a new 24D2072 variant for the upcoming Macs ahead of their launch date.

Pre-orders for the M4 ‌MacBook Air‌, M4 Max ‌Mac Studio‌, and M3 Ultra ‌Mac Studio‌ began last week, and the first shipments are set to arrive to customers on Wednesday, March 12.

Popular Stories

iOS 26

Apple Releases iOS 26.3 and iPadOS 26.3

Wednesday February 11, 2026 10:07 am PST by
Apple today released iOS 26.3 and iPadOS 26.3, the latest updates to the iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 operating systems that came out in September. The new software comes almost two months after Apple released iOS 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. According to Apple's release notes, ...
m5 macbook pro deal

Why You Shouldn't Buy the Next MacBook Pro

Tuesday February 10, 2026 4:27 pm PST by
Apple is planning to launch new MacBook Pro models as soon as early March, but if you can, this is one generation you should skip because there's something much better in the works. We're waiting on 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, with few changes other than the processor upgrade. There won't be any tweaks to the design or the display, but later this...
M3 iPad Air

Apple's Next Two Products Are Coming Soon

Thursday February 12, 2026 11:17 am PST by
Apple plans to release an iPhone 17e and an iPad Air with an M4 chip "in the coming weeks," according to the latest word from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. "Apple retail employees say that inventory of the iPhone 16e has basically dried out and the iPad Air is seeing shortages as well," said Gurman. "I've been expecting new versions of both (iPhone 17e and M4 iPad Air) in the coming weeks."...
Apple Logo Black

Apple Acquires New Database App

Wednesday February 11, 2026 6:44 am PST by
Apple acquired Canadian graph database company Kuzu last year, it has emerged. The acquisition, spotted by AppleInsider, was completed in October 2025 for an undisclosed sum. The company's website was subsequently taken down and its Github repository was archived, as is commonplace for Apple acquisitions. Kuzu was "an embedded graph database built for query speed, scalability, and easy of ...
iPhone 16e Bottom Crop

Apple Reportedly Unveiling a New iPhone Next Week

Tuesday February 10, 2026 1:51 pm PST by
Apple plans to announce the iPhone 17e on Thursday, February 19, according to Macwelt, the German equivalent of Macworld. The report said the iPhone 17e will be announced in a press release on the Apple Newsroom website, so do not expect an event for this device specifically. The iPhone 17e will be a spec-bumped successor to the iPhone 16e. Rumors claim the device will have four key...

Top Rated Comments

12 months ago

This is the way the business works these days. Nothing is shipped as a finished product anymore. For good or bad.
It's a computer. Aren't software updates happening almost daily for any device you have? The fact that a computer has updates day 1 is not a revelation to anyone is it? The fact that MacRumors is putting this up as news is what is more ridiculous.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
12 months ago
Threads like these always get me in trouble; especially when I ask 'what planet are you people from?" Dang--do you think that Apple announces a product then a batch of magical sky fairies produce tens of thousands of units and stock them all over the world in 24 hours? The computers (MacBook/Studio) went into production months ago...it takes time to produce the large number of units needed for initial inventory and have them shipped to the US...Production clearly started well before the current version of iOS was finalized--so yeah, you need to update to get the most recent version of iOS if you are buying the initial release hardware.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
12 months ago

This is the way the business works these days. Nothing is shipped as a finished product anymore. For good or bad.
Oh wow, an update, the humanity!
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
12 months ago

All Apple products are released as public beta tests. This is not shocking.
How so? I would say this is more of a windows issue than a Mac, at least the Mac software update is for security reasons, more than bug fixes.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
12 months ago
Not surprised to see a day one update. Think the devices were ready for launch sometime back. Also it is now quite common for Apple devices to get day 1 update. Prefer to have the latest version pre-installed but it is not a huge hassle to update.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
12 months ago
This is the way the business works these days. Nothing is shipped as a finished product anymore. For good or bad.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)