Overview
- On Tuesday retailers led by Amazon began posting the first pre-order discounts for Apple’s new products with the AirPods 5 listed at $124.99 and select Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 configurations reduced by roughly $9–$20.
- Amazon also showed small pre-order markdowns of up to $50 on the newly announced M6 Mac mini and M5 Max Mac Studio ahead of their Sept. 22 ship date.
- Deeper, in-stock discounts appeared the same week on current models, with M5 MacBook Air configurations dropping to as low as $1,199 and M4 iPad Air SKUs taking up to $149 off at Amazon and Best Buy.
- Apple’s Certified Refurb store briefly restocked a 13-inch M5 MacBook Air (16GB/512GB) at $1,099, offering a lower-price alternative with Apple’s one-year warranty but limited quantities.
- These moves reflect retailers intermittently rolling back Apple’s summer list-price increases, but the savings are configuration specific, often short lived, and come with tradeoffs in availability and warranty status that buyers should watch before orders ship.