Apple’s highly anticipated M5 Mac Studio and touchscreen MacBook Pro face significant delays, pushed to October and early 2027 respectively. This crunch stems from a global RAM and SSD shortage, fueled by booming AI data centers. Despite software readiness, Apple is strategically holding back hardware launches to ensure sufficient stock, impacting current Mac Studio availability.
The M5 Mac Studio won’t arrive until October at the earliest, and the touchscreen MacBook Pro is likely slipping to early 2027, according to Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter at Bloomberg.Both delays come down to the same culprit: an industry-wide shortage of RAM and SSD storage that’s squeezing every major tech company right now. Apple had been targeting a mid-2026 window for the Mac Studio refresh, but that’s now moved back by several months. The touchscreen MacBook Pro—already a late-2026 to early-2027 candidate—is now leaning toward the later end of that range.
AI datacenters Are eating the world’s memory supply
The shortage isn’t Apple-specific. Demand for AI server infrastructure has exploded globally, and those systems consume enormous amounts of RAM and storage.
That’s left less supply for consumer hardware, and prices have shot up accordingly. Apple reportedly struck a deal to pay Samsung double its previous rate for DRAM chips just to keep things moving.Despite Apple’s better-than-average position in managing supply chains, it hasn’t been immune. Several Mac Studio and Mac mini configurations are already backordered by over a month, with some completely unavailable.
Most people assumed that was a signal a new model was coming soon—turns out, it just means supply is tight.
The software side is actually ready to go
Interestingly, Gurman notes that the software work for the touchscreen MacBook Pro—including new contextual menus and dynamically resized toolbar buttons—will be finished and shipping with macOS 27 this fall. So this isn’t a case of engineers scrambling. The hardware is largely ready too. Apple is simply holding the launch until it’s confident it can actually meet demand without immediately running out of stock.For anyone eyeing either machine, October looks like the earliest realistic window—and that’s only for the Mac Studio.
