3 ms·

Even if Apple were ready to move right away, the delayed supply chains force their hand to hold stuff back. In the UK, if you want to buy even a basic spec 14"

Even if Apple were ready to move right away, the delayed supply chains force their hand to hold stuff back. In the UK, if you want to buy even a basic spec 14" or 16" M1 MacBook Pro, you'll be waiting till August (mid August if you want to customize the spec). They can't drop a M2 based replacement at that level any time soon without a slew of cancelled orders and I imagine they have all the parts either ordered or ready to go on those. People have been wondering why the M2 is going into an older, less desirable 13" MBP chassis first, and I think it's because if they even put it into the 14", they'd lose a ton of existing 14" and 16" orders. Best get those made and shipped first, then drop the good stuff.

bombcar 4y ago
Part of this may be deciding which countries/retailers to send to, as Best Buy in the US has those in stock for pickup today, but the Apple store is listing August. Interestingly customizing it pushes it from Aug 16 to Aug 23.
- dagmx 4y ago
  The most important aspect is which SKU and config you're looking at. Various stores will stock what they think are the big movers, and will not have much of anything else on hand. Usually that's the base model and one almost highest specced one
  - bombcar 4y ago
    MKGQ3LL/A and MKGP3LL/A are listed as "get in 5 days" (this means BestBuy has one somewhere in their network and will ship it to you or a nearby store) and MK193LL/A and MK183LL/A for pickup today (as you guessed, lowest and nearly highest).
hbn 4y ago
I wouldn't have expected the new 14" or 16" MBPs to get the base M2. They never got the base M1, just the Pro and Max. I would expect those will be updated to the M2 Pro/Max when those launch. The existence of the 13-inch M2 MBP is just bizarre and seems like a case of "make it cause people might see Pro and buy it, and we have assembly lines for these bodies we can continue to use". I imagine in the future, the base M# chips will be for the MacBook Airs and iPads, while the Pro/Max/Ultra go into the various Pro Macs.
- hajile 4y ago
  There are people who consider the touchbar to be critical to their workflow. These laptops are a cheap, easy option to support that while bringing those people to ARM (and also clearing out their stock of proprietary keyboard screens). I suspect they’ll wind up introducing an external keyboard with the touchbar in the future.
  - hbn 4y ago
    I'd put good money on a bet against that prediction. If there are people who consider the touchbar to be critical to their workflow, I've never met them, and I've worked with a lot of people who used a MacBook Pro with a touchbar for work. The most positive takes I've heard are "it's fine," and everyone else (including me) hates it and was thrilled to see the new designs went back to physical keys. Why would they be redesigning all their laptops to drop the touchbar if they were still committed to it? It barely got any adoption from developers when it was built into their laptops, and it certainly wouldn't get any more if it became an optional accessory that most people don't want. I think Apple has admitted the touchbar was a failure, along with the full switch to exclusively USB-C ports, and the thinness at the cost of performance.
hajile 4y ago
M2 die is a fraction of the size of the M2 Pro/Ultra. The air is far and away their best seller. The M2 no doubt will also go into their tablets which also far outsell their bigger laptops. Selling 3-4x as many devices with the same fab capacity is a better deal for them. That’s probably the biggest reason why the M1 Pro/Max lagged by so long.

bombcar 4y ago

Part of this may be deciding which countries/retailers to send to, as Best Buy in the US has those in stock for pickup today, but the Apple store is listing August. Interestingly customizing it pushes it from Aug 16 to Aug 23.

dagmx 4y ago
The most important aspect is which SKU and config you're looking at. Various stores will stock what they think are the big movers, and will not have much of anything else on hand. Usually that's the base model and one almost highest specced one
- bombcar 4y ago
  MKGQ3LL/A and MKGP3LL/A are listed as "get in 5 days" (this means BestBuy has one somewhere in their network and will ship it to you or a nearby store) and MK193LL/A and MK183LL/A for pickup today (as you guessed, lowest and nearly highest).

hbn 4y ago

I wouldn't have expected the new 14" or 16" MBPs to get the base M2. They never got the base M1, just the Pro and Max. I would expect those will be updated to the M2 Pro/Max when those launch. The existence of the 13-inch M2 MBP is just bizarre and seems like a case of "make it cause people might see Pro and buy it, and we have assembly lines for these bodies we can continue to use". I imagine in the future, the base M# chips will be for the MacBook Airs and iPads, while the Pro/Max/Ultra go into the various Pro Macs.

hajile 4y ago
There are people who consider the touchbar to be critical to their workflow. These laptops are a cheap, easy option to support that while bringing those people to ARM (and also clearing out their stock of proprietary keyboard screens). I suspect they’ll wind up introducing an external keyboard with the touchbar in the future.
- hbn 4y ago
  I'd put good money on a bet against that prediction. If there are people who consider the touchbar to be critical to their workflow, I've never met them, and I've worked with a lot of people who used a MacBook Pro with a touchbar for work. The most positive takes I've heard are "it's fine," and everyone else (including me) hates it and was thrilled to see the new designs went back to physical keys. Why would they be redesigning all their laptops to drop the touchbar if they were still committed to it? It barely got any adoption from developers when it was built into their laptops, and it certainly wouldn't get any more if it became an optional accessory that most people don't want. I think Apple has admitted the touchbar was a failure, along with the full switch to exclusively USB-C ports, and the thinness at the cost of performance.

hajile 4y ago

M2 die is a fraction of the size of the M2 Pro/Ultra. The air is far and away their best seller. The M2 no doubt will also go into their tablets which also far outsell their bigger laptops. Selling 3-4x as many devices with the same fab capacity is a better deal for them. That’s probably the biggest reason why the M1 Pro/Max lagged by so long.