Why it’s almost impossible to buy a MacBook Air right now from Apple
The MacBook Air has officially become one of the hardest Apple products for customers to get their hands on right now, with people facing weeks-long delays for their orders.
This comes after the tech giant revamped its popular laptop model with a new M5 chip earlier this year but now the MacBook Air is facing supply shortages.
According to Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman’s newsletter, Power On, new orders being made aren’t ‘scheduled to ship until the end of August’, while memory options will take as long as early September to arrive.
This level of delay is highly unusual for a product that only launched a few months ago, especially one that consistently ranks as Apple’s best-selling Mac.
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What makes the issue even more unusual is the fact that multiple combinations of screen size, colour and memory are now showing extended delivery estimates, suggesting the shortages are affecting a lot of the lineup.
The MacBook Air isn’t the only Apple computer to be impacted as similar supply constraints have already affected the Mac Mini and Mac Studio.
So, what is the reason behind the shortage? One of the biggest factors is the growing demand for memory chips, fuelled by the rapid expansion of AI data centers.
As tech companies continue investing heavily in AI infrastructure, memory components have become more expensive and harder to get hold of.
Apple has already responded to these pressures by increasing prices across several Macs and iPads in recent months.
Reports have also suggested that the firm is considering additional memory suppliers for devices sold in China while it prepares its next wave of Mac launches.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, who is set to step down from his post at the end of this month, has spoken publicly about the delays, saying: “We’re seeing some very significant constraints currently with limited flexibility in the supply chain to remedy it.”
Cook added: “This is not a regular supply issue, it’s a demand forecast issue to be candid. We’ve got a quarter ahead where we’ll be scrambling on the supply side.”
It is hoped these issues will be rectified before the highly anticipated launch of iOS 27 expected to drop this fall.
The operating system upgrade will boast a range of new features including the revamped Siri AI.
According to Apple, Siri will become a ‘profoundly more capable and conversational assistant with personal context understanding, broad world knowledge, and onscreen awareness’.