AppleInsider Staff
For the third week in a row, Apple has lowered ship-by times for its flagship Mac Pro desktop, with the latest two to three week estimates suggesting the company is quickly catching up with demand.
Apple has found it difficult to keep up with supply of the redesigned Mac Pro since the computer debuted in December.
As of Thursday, however, the Online Apple Store is showing shipping availability at 2-3 weeks, a vast improvement over the more than month-long waits some customers experienced in January and February. Last week, ship-by dates dropped to below one month for the first time since launch.
The new shipping estimates apply to all Mac Pro configurations, including fully maxed-out models that go for more than $13,000.
Historically, ship-by dates have steadily improved over the first quarter, with checks in April showing estimates at 5-6 weeks, which moved up to 4-6 weeks on Apr. 11, 4-5 weeks on Apr. 18 and 3-5 weeks on Apr. 24.
Due to constrained supply, in-store models are non-existent. In January, Apple said it didn't expect to have models available at brick-and-mortar Apple Stores until at least March.
As Apple builds its inventory, authorized resellers like MacMall and Adorama have limited supplies of select Mac Pro configurations, which can be seen in AppleInsider's live Price Guides.
Malcolm Owen
Oliver Haslam
Andrew O'Hara
Wesley Hilliard
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
37 Comments
Just as they get to ship same day, they will be releasing the new Mac Pro v2 I bet!
Just as they get to ship same day, they will be releasing the new Mac Pro v2 I bet!
I bet it won't be far behind. I wouldn't be surprised to see a small update before years end.
[quote name="digitalclips" url="/t/179235/apples-mac-pro-ship-times-drop-to-2-3-weeks-shortest-wait-since-launch#post_2529893"]Just as they get to ship same day, they will be releasing the new Mac Pro v2 I bet![/quote] Well maybe not on the same day but it won't be far behind. Then we will have to listen to all the whining about Apple updating the Mac Pro too fast. Demands for refunds will follow and so forth. On the other hand you never know, Apple might wait for the next Xeon process shrink. What ever they do they can't let the machine lag for years like they find the last Mac Pro. They need to work with Intel to make sure the evolution of Xeon is right for this platform. Hey maybe in a couple of months the low cost variant will come out. Wishful thinking I know but the possibility intrigues me to no end. A Haswell/Broadwell/SkyLake APU as the base processor with the option of a GPU board would make my day. Ship it with just four TB ports to cut expenses slightly and for the stingy amongst us put in another PCI-Express SSD slot with the saved PCI Express lanes from the deleted TB interface Price it at $1500 and they will have a new desktop Mac customer.
[quote name="macxpress" url="/t/179235/apples-mac-pro-ship-times-drop-to-2-3-weeks-shortest-wait-since-launch#post_2529963"] I bet it won't be far behind. I wouldn't be surprised to see a small update before years end. [/quote] It is entirely possible, Intel did release new XEONs late this winter into spring. The architecture has been significantly enhanced so it might lead to a nice bump in performance.
And perhaps a 2nd SSD?