A serious supply disruption is brewing in the laptop market. According to Bloomberg insider Mark Gurman, a shortage of RAM components will leave some configurations of the new MacBook Air with the M5 chip unavailable to buyers until September. The situation is exacerbated by industry analysts predicting that the memory shortage will persist until 2028.

Chinese supplies and local restrictions

Apple is trying to mitigate the impact by signing new contracts with Chinese memory suppliers. However, according to Gurman, these measures are local in nature and apply exclusively to devices intended for sale within China. For the global market, the situation remains tense, forcing the company to change its sales strategy.

Price increases and shifting priorities

In response to the shortage, the company has taken several decisive steps:

  • Prices have been raised by several hundred dollars across the product line.
  • Supplies have been focused on the base 14-inch MacBook Pro model.
  • The marketing strategy has changed: Apple is actively directing customers to the website and retail stores to the MacBook Pro model instead of the Air.
These actions are partly due to preparations for the Pro lineup update with the M6 chip, which is expected this fall. Notably, the update will only affect the 14-inch Pro model, excluding versions with the Pro and Max suffixes.

Postponement of the sale and anomalies on Amazon

The lack of components has already forced Apple to postpone the traditional back-to-school promotion, which was scheduled to start in June. Nevertheless, there are unexpected exceptions in the market. On the Amazon marketplace, timely supplies of 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air models based on M5 are still available. Moreover, they are offered with a $100 discount: the junior version costs $1199, and the senior version — $1399.