Apple’s most popular laptop is running out. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that the MacBook Air is facing a “major” shortage, with retail sources describing supply as worse than anything they have seen before. The M5 MacBook Air now shows delivery estimates of two to six weeks on Apple’s US online store, and configurations with more RAM are delayed the longest.
MacBook Air shortage: what Gurman is reporting
Citing retail store sources, Gurman wrote:
Retail store sources say Apple is struggling to keep the laptop in stock and that shipments of new units are more constrained than they can ever recall.
The MacBook Air is not the only product affected. MacRumors, reporting on Gurman’s piece, notes that the Mac Studio and Mac mini are also constrained. Higher-RAM configurations face the longest waits, which fits the pattern: the global memory shortage is the root cause, and more RAM per unit means more exposure to the bottleneck.
Why this is happening
We covered the underlying memory crisis in detail when Apple confirmed on its earnings call that the price increases were driven by memory costs. Tim Cook called it a “100-year flood.” The short version: Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron have shifted wafer capacity to High Bandwidth Memory for AI data centres, squeezing consumer DRAM and NAND out of the production queue.
What has changed since that earnings call is that the constraint has moved from pricing into availability. Apple raised the US MacBook Air starting price from $1,099 to $1,299 in June — a $200 increase — and still cannot keep the machine in stock. That is the part worth sitting with: a 18 per cent price hike has not been enough to balance supply against demand.
What this means for buyers in India
No India-specific availability data has been reported. The MacBook Air M5 currently starts at ₹1,49,900 on apple.com/in, as of today. Whether Indian buyers face similar delivery delays is not clear from the reporting — Gurman’s sources are US retail — so check the delivery estimate at checkout on Apple’s India store or contact an authorised reseller before assuming the machine is available.
Apple’s own back-to-school promotional materials now describe the MacBook Air as “subject to availability,” which is unusual for a product in the middle of its cycle. If you need a Mac now and the Air is unavailable, the 14-inch MacBook Pro M5 (from ₹2,39,900 in India) remains in stock — but that is a ₹90,000 jump for a machine whose main advantage here is simply being available, not being the right fit.
The uncomfortable part
Apple took a significant price increase in June, reported record revenue for the quarter, and still cannot supply its most affordable laptop. The machine that remains available is the more expensive MacBook Pro. For a buyer in India, this means the entry point into the Mac lineup has effectively moved up — not because Apple chose to discontinue the Air, but because the Air cannot be reliably bought. Memory is soldered, so waiting for prices to drop and upgrading later is not an option either. The only real protection is buying what you need when you can find it, and making sure the configuration you pick has enough RAM and storage for the life of the machine.
