Apple this week stopped selling three more Mac configurations due to a combination of supply and demand factors impacting availability.
Apple's online store no longer offers the following configurations:
- Mac mini with M4 chip and 32GB of RAM
- Mac mini with M4 Pro chip and 64GB of RAM
- Mac Studio with M3 Ultra chip and 256GB of RAM
As a result of these changes, the Mac mini now maxes out at 48GB of RAM, while the Mac Studio tops out at 96GB of RAM.
Apple already stopped offering the Mac Studio with 512GB of RAM in March, and it dropped the Mac mini's lowest 256GB storage option last week, which resulted in the Mac mini's starting price increasing from $599 to $799 in the United States.
As we mentioned, there are both supply and demand factors at play here.
On an earnings call last week, Apple CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that Mac mini and Mac Studio supply is constrained, and he said it may take "several months" for Apple to achieve supply-demand balance. He said both of these Macs are "amazing platforms for AI and agentic tools," resulting in higher-than-expected demand.
On the supply side, there continues to be a global memory chip shortage driven by companies building out AI server facilities. Cook said Apple is expecting "significantly higher memory costs" in the current quarter, and tight RAM availability is likely contributing to the removal of various Mac mini and Mac Studio configurations.
