If you’re planning to order a MacBook Pro with either the M4 Pro or M4 Max chip from Apple, then you may have noticed that some models are facing severe shipping delays. While many of the MacBook Pro models with the M4 Pro chip have normal shipping timeframes, the models with the M4 Max chip have seen shipping dates pushed to between February 6 and February 24 or even later. Custom configurations with the 16-core M4 Max chip and 128GB of RAM are even seeing longer shipping delays going into March. Sometimes, such shipping delays indicate that a hardware refresh is imminent, and these delays would line up perfectly with last week’s speculation. However, it should also be noted that the recent RAM supply constraints could also be the culprit for those extended shipping delays.
To recap, Apple updated only the base 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M5 chip last October. Both the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips have yet to be introduced in the next update for the higher-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros. With Apple Creator Studio set to launch on Wednesday, January 28, and Apple having its quarterly earnings call the following day, this is Apple’s perfect chance to unveil those MacBook Pro models with the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. Apple introduced MacBook Pro models with the M2 Pro and M2 Max chips in January 2023, so history could repeat itself once again.
