New MacBook Air and Mac Studio Will Have Day One Software Update - MacRumors
Skip to Content

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

iPhone 18 Pro Rumored Colors

What's Coming in September: New iPhones, Apple Watches and More

Thursday August 13, 2026 4:20 pm PDT by
Apple will introduce at least five new devices at its iPhone-centric event next month, and it's also possible we'll get devices waiting on Siri AI like the Apple TV. iPhone 18 Pro The iPhone 18 Pro is going to look like the iPhone 17 Pro, but with a smaller Dynamic Island. It's getting some internal updates, including a new Wide camera with a variable aperture for more control over lighting ...
iPhone 17 One Year Later Thumb 1

Should You Buy an iPhone 17 Now or Wait for iPhone 18?

Friday August 14, 2026 12:15 pm PDT by
For the first time since Apple started selling standard and "Pro" iPhones, we're not going to get an entry-level iPhone model this fall. Apple doesn't plan to release an iPhone 18 in September, and will only launch the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and foldable iPhone Ultra. The lower-cost iPhone 18 won't come out until spring 2027. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Everything New Your iPhone Can Do on iOS 27 Feature 1

30 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 27

Friday August 14, 2026 6:24 am PDT by
Apple will release iOS 27 in September, and despite the company's focus this year on refining its flagship operating system and nixing bugs, there are still many additional features on the way, not least of which is Apple's new context-aware Siri, re-tooled for the generative AI era. This year's major iPhone software update isn't all about AI, though, as the following feature list...

Top Rated Comments

19 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)
19 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)
19 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)
19 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)
19 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)
19 months ago
I don't think this is new. In fact, IIRC, none of the Macs that I bought throughout the years came with the last OS update installed. I think I updated the OS in the first day even with the white G5 iMac.

Edit: Also, I don't expect too many bugs this time, because there are no new processors except for the M3 Ultra. When the M4 was released, there were quite a few reports of OS crashes with the M4 Pro and M4 Max, but all of that is fixed by now (at least I haven't found more complaints about M4-related crashes).
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)