Apple's first touchscreen Mac has started reaching customers, but only in Australia and New Zealand, and only some of them.
It was already November 6 there, and the source says people who preordered the PROLED touchscreen MacBook Pro, the OLED iPad mini, the M6 MacBook Pro or the M6 iMac are starting to receive devices. Australia is also the first country where the new products can be bought in an Apple retail location.
The PROLED caveat matters. The source says online orders of that model don't ship until late November or early December, so in-store stock may be limited. The same source says the OLED iPad mini, 14-inch MacBook Pro and iMac should be readily available. Read together, the PROLED MacBook Pro in customers' hands now is preorder fulfillment and whatever the stores hold. Anyone ordering it online now waits. The source does not say how large that first wave is.
Pricing for the PROLED MacBook Pro starts at $2,899 for the 14-inch and $3,399 for the 16-inch. The source lists dollar figures without naming a currency, and with an Australian launch we can't confirm they are US prices. The same goes for the rest of the lineup:
- OLED iPad mini: $699
- M6 14-inch MacBook Pro: $1,999
- M6 iMac: $1,499
The iPad mini is the more complete story. It is the most affordable OLED iPad, almost a millimeter thinner than before, and uses the A20 Pro chip. An Acoustic Display replaces the speaker holes, which seals the enclosure and gives it an IP67 water and dust rating, a first for an iPad.
The entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro and the 24-inch iMac got little beyond an M6 chip. So the touchscreen Mac is the one with something to prove, and the early photos and impressions from Australian buyers will be the first outside test of whether it works the way Apple's own marketing suggests. Apple has long kept touch on the iPad and out of the Mac, which makes the first verdict on this hybrid worth watching.