I’m in no way from the “instant gratification” generation. And I do know that there’s a global chip shortage and such.
That being said, I noticed that the delivery time for a CTO Mac Studio is currently over a month and a half: July 19-26. That actually keeps me from ordering/buying a new Mac. A lot can happen in the meantime, not in the least the announcement of an upgraded Mac Mini.
Also, I don’t quite understand why the base model can be shipped almost straight away, while a computer with an - up to current standards quite normal - 1TB ssd takes so much longer.
For me these long delivery times are a real deal breaker. Or at least something that keeps me from buying a new Mac.
As a comparison I had a look at Dell’s website. Their XPS desktop with 1TB NVMe and 16GB of user upgradable(!) RAM can be delivered the dday after tomorrow. Not that I want that machine. But it’s quite a difference with Apple’s month-and-a-half. And that for a company with supply-chain wonderboy Tim Cook as CEO.
Long delivery times have never kept me from buying, but they have kept me from ordering. If a company cannot delivery in a reasonable length of time I won’t place an order until they can.
I put in my order for the Mac Studio and got an estimated delivery of up to 3 months. That sucked. Then they turned around and delivered in 3 weeks, so that was a welcome surprise. Still waiting on the monitor though, so you’ll never really know how accurate those estimates are.
Also, the fact that I got lucky with the Mac Studio doesn’t mean that you will. That said, I was pretty clear on what I wanted, so put in the order knowing I was in for a long wait. Apple has a monopoly on Macs, so what can you do
A question, if on July 1st the delivery estimate is July 19-26 would you order it?
Yes a lot can happen in the meantime.
You can also cancel your order should things change.
And if on July 1st the delivery time is September 19-26 then you’ve lost two months of using your new Mac.
I’m not seeing the downslide of ordering now.
And for the record, when I ordered my system, April 4th, the delivery date was the first week of June, and I didn’t want that to push out any further. Like @airwhale, my arrived much earlier (April 20th). Unlike airhwhale, I did not order the display.
Dell is no supply chain wonder. I routinely order Dell PCs for our laboratories and clinics. Typical turnaround is 6 weeks. One order has been open since January, with a "We’re sorry your order has been delayed’ message every two weeks. Apple has been much more reliable than Dell.
If I want to buy an item and it takes time to arrive, I’ll wait. If I’m not willing to wait, why am I buying it?
I just bought some screws off Lazada for $1 that will take 20 days to arrive. I can wait because they are the right screws (I hope…)
If I had need of an immediate replacement, that’s different.
I ordered my Studio Display from a local reseller instead of Apple because they had it “in stock”. I’ve since been given the runaround and have not received one yet but that’s just down to bad comms and worse ordering systems. In the end, I expect to receive it sooner than had I ordered directly from Apple. At least on their latest promise.
So yeah, I ordered from the place I thought would get it to me soonest (by a significant margin at first sight) but I was darn well going to order it from someone that day regardless of how long it took.
I just received a similar email from Apple apologizing that my Mac Studio has been delayed and that they are doing their best to get it to me.
This is for the Mac Studio which arrived on April 20th, and would have arrived sooner had I not asked for it to be held by the carrier as I was out of town.
The original delivery estimate was for the first week of June. Curious.
Longer wait times has become a norm since the start of the pandemic. My 16" MBP I ordered when lockdown has started in China in early 2020 took about 8 weeks. Base model will ship within a month but my order is custom (32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, upgraded GPU).
A Starlight Apple Watch S7 last November took 4 weeks while the green one took about 7 weeks. My order of 4 packs of Airtag took 4 weeks this month. I’m kinda getting used to the delays.
I’m in South East Asia so I guess my items ships faster from Singapore and China.
Long delivery times make me very hesitant for multi-part orders, because of Apple’s non-intuitive return policies. It creates scenarios like this:
“Hey Apple, I’d like one of those shiny new Mac Studios with the Studio display, please.”
“Okay, your Mac Studio will be there within three months. Your Studio Display will be there in two months.”
Now you have a Studio Display sitting there for a month before your Mac Studio shows up, and your return window starts immediately upon delivery. This means you’ll be outside the return window when the computer that you ordered the display for shows up.
Find a non-warranty-type problem with the Studio Display (i.e. you hate the webcam) when you take it out of the box and hook it up to the Studio? Sorry! You should’ve returned it within the window. Oh, you didn’t have a computer that you could test it on? Not Apple’s problem.
I had something on a much less dollar-intensive scale happen when I ordered an iPad Mini close to launch time. I ordered a Mini, a Pencil, and a Mini case. They shipped everything except the iPad itself immediately, and the iPad was slated to arrive three weeks later - outside the return period for the accessories.
I mean…I ordered the accessories to go with the iPad. I have no idea how I’m supposed to try using the Pencil and case with an iPad I wouldn’t have until a week or so after the return window closed. Which is the whole point of a return policy, isn’t it? To give you a bit of time to actually use the device in question?
I’m sure delivery leads do change my behavior. It’s one of those things, like being affected by ads, that I want to say doesn’t apply to me, but know better.
One thing I know about myself is that if I get a package and the wrong set of things are going on, it might sit there awhile, so I like to increase the odds an item enters the house when I’m predisposed to deal with it. It’s hard to plan months ahead for that.
This doesn’t follow with what I was told by Apple support. They said my return window and my trade-in would be extended until my “computer” order was complete (Mac Studio arrived at the end of March, Apple Studio Display is supposed to arrive today — May 31).
Technically, they said that their system would automatically cancel my trade-in, so I’d have to call and get it extended when my display arrived and I was ready to send it in. I find that annoying, but I know the Apple trade-in service is outsourced and has never been up to Apple standards.
All I know is that I’ll be expecting to get what they promised me nearly 3 months ago, not the currently lower trade-in value. it’s not my fault that they couldn’t deliver when they said they would.
I have no idea how the warranty works — did the 1 year start when my Mac Studio arrived, or does it start when the long-delayed monitor arrives? It should be the latter, given that it’s been 8 weeks overdue.
For got to add:
Long delivery times would definitely cause me to wait on purchasing “wants”, but not on “needs”. And my Studio Display experience has definitely caused me to re-think purchasing anything that I rely upon on day one.
Maybe they have a separate policy regarding the Mac Studio - but I could swear I heard a podcaster mention that they’d need to “open a box and test” a computer within the return window, even though they were waiting on the display.
I know my iPad accessories were super-clear - return window closed before the iPad was due to arrive. And their website doesn’t spell out any exceptions - Returns & Refunds - Shopping Help - Apple
Yeah, its all a matter of perspective. 6 weeks waiting for a new computer is nothing compared to the 7 months I waited to have my new car built last year. These days you need patience for delivery of most items and services.
