This evening, Apple made a major change to the way buying a Mac goes in the Apple Online Store. Since the early days, Apple has offered a number of preconfigured models – and over the years more and more built-to-order options were added, from which the customer could choose before purchasing. But now the company is turning the entire process inside out – and the purchase now looks a lot like an iPhone or iPad. For example, if you previously looked at a MacBook Pro in the Apple Online Store, you could choose between 14″ and 16″ using a control element – and a few possible configurations were listed below, which were often delivered faster than completely customized devices. Especially when introducing new model generations, Apple already prepares the proposed configurations, so that they can sometimes be delivered weeks earlier.
No more pre-selected model configurations
If you now look in the Apple Store, you will immediately notice that all Macs are now configured in exactly the same way as an iPhone or iPad: There are no longer any preselected configurations, but rather the interested party is guided through various selection steps in which they can select RAM, SSD and other options.
Inquiry about changes
Not all configuration options can be combined with each other, as was the case before. For example, it is not possible to equip an M4 Pro with 128 GB of memory – this is only possible with the M4 Max. If you still select this storage option, you will now be asked whether you would like to replace the M4 Pro with an M4 Max:
Models in the Apple Stores?
Apple normally has the preconfigured models that were previously available in the Apple Online Store available for purchase and take-away in Apple retail stores. It is still unclear how this will work in the future. The group will probably continue to offer popular model configurations in its stores for direct take-away.
Preparing for the MacBook Pro with M5 Pro & Max?
If the rumor mill is to be believed, Apple will soon announce the MacBook Pro 14″ and 16″ with M5 Pro and M5 Max – and tonight’s changes could be a hint that the faster models are about to launch next week.
