- Delivery wait times for Apple's high-end Mac Mini in China stretch up to 18 weeks.
- The ongoing OpenClaw AI craze has further exacerbated the supply and demand imbalance for the Mac Mini in China.
Apple's compact desktop computers are facing persistent supply constraints in China, as surging AI demand leads to memory shortages.
The Apple Mac Mini and Mac Studio are currently experiencing severe shipping delays in China, with consumers of certain high-end models having to wait up to nearly half a year.
The core reason for these shipping delays is a severe global shortage of memory chips, as surging demand from AI server companies consumes massive production capacity.
On Apple's online stores in both China and the US, delivery times for large-memory configurations have been significantly extended.
The base Mac Mini equipped with the M4 chip and 16 GB of memory has a shipping time of 3 to 4 weeks, according to information on Apple's official Chinese website.
Shipping times for the Mac Mini with the M4 Pro chip and 24 GB or 36 GB of memory are 6 to 8 weeks, while the model equipped with the M4 Pro chip and 64 GB of memory takes 16 to 18 weeks to ship.
Furthermore, the Mac Studio equipped with the M3 Ultra chip and 256 GB of memory has a shipping cycle of 4 to 5 months, and consumers opting for in-store pickup must wait at least 9 months.
The Mac Studio with the M4 Max chip and 36 GB or 64 GB of memory has a shipping duration of 4 to 6 weeks, while the M3 Ultra version with 96 GB or 128 GB takes 8 to 12 weeks.
Facing current intense supply pressures, Apple removed the 512 GB memory configuration option for the Mac Studio in China last month.
In the Chinese market, the ongoing OpenClaw AI craze has further exacerbated the supply and demand imbalance for the Apple Mac Mini.
Driven by data security concerns, a large number of Chinese users are choosing to buy this macOS-equipped compact desktop to deploy local AI models.
