New MacBook Air and Mac Studio Will Have Day One Software Update - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

New MacBook Air and Mac Studio Will Have Day One Software Update

New MacBook Air and Mac Studio users who are expecting one of the machines later this week will need to install a day one software update to upgrade to the latest version of macOS Sequoia.

macOS Sequoia Night Feature
The M4 ‌MacBook Air‌ and M4 Max and M3 Ultra ‌Mac Studio‌ models will come with older versions of macOS installed. The ‌MacBook Air‌ models appear to ship with macOS Sequoia 15.2, while the ‌Mac Studio‌ models have macOS Sequoia 15.3 installed.

Apple released macOS Sequoia 15.3.1 back on February 10, but the ‌Mac Studio‌ and ‌MacBook Air‌ were clearly prepared for launch before that update came out. macOS 15.3.1 is not available for the new machines just yet, but Apple is likely to release a new 24D2072 variant for the upcoming Macs ahead of their launch date.

Pre-orders for the M4 ‌MacBook Air‌, M4 Max ‌Mac Studio‌, and M3 Ultra ‌Mac Studio‌ began last week, and the first shipments are set to arrive to customers on Wednesday, March 12.

Popular Stories

iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max Feature

'Apple Upgrade' Program Reportedly Launching Next Week

Tuesday July 21, 2026 8:30 am PDT by
Apple and Klarna are partnering on a new "Apple Upgrade" leasing program set to launch in the U.S. on Tuesday, July 28, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The program will allow you to finance most iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch models, with a 24-month term for iPhones and Apple Watches and a 36-month term for iPads and Macs. Customers will be able to pay off the device early during...
iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching in Two Months With These 12 New Features

Friday July 17, 2026 10:39 am PDT by
It is now mid-July, and that means the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are now just two months away. The devices are expected to look similar to the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, but there will still be many year-over-year changes, with rumored features including a smaller Dynamic Island, 5G via satellite, and more. Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, ...
iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching in Two Months With These 12 New Features

Tuesday July 21, 2026 6:22 am PDT by
It is now mid-July, and that means the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are now just two months away. The devices are expected to look similar to the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, but there will still be many year-over-year changes, with rumored features including a smaller Dynamic Island, 5G via satellite, and more. Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, ...

Top Rated Comments

18 months ago

This is the way the business works these days. Nothing is shipped as a finished product anymore. For good or bad.
It's a computer. Aren't software updates happening almost daily for any device you have? The fact that a computer has updates day 1 is not a revelation to anyone is it? The fact that MacRumors is putting this up as news is what is more ridiculous.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
18 months ago
Threads like these always get me in trouble; especially when I ask 'what planet are you people from?" Dang--do you think that Apple announces a product then a batch of magical sky fairies produce tens of thousands of units and stock them all over the world in 24 hours? The computers (MacBook/Studio) went into production months ago...it takes time to produce the large number of units needed for initial inventory and have them shipped to the US...Production clearly started well before the current version of iOS was finalized--so yeah, you need to update to get the most recent version of iOS if you are buying the initial release hardware.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
18 months ago

This is the way the business works these days. Nothing is shipped as a finished product anymore. For good or bad.
Oh wow, an update, the humanity!
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
18 months ago
Not surprised to see a day one update. Think the devices were ready for launch sometime back. Also it is now quite common for Apple devices to get day 1 update. Prefer to have the latest version pre-installed but it is not a huge hassle to update.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
18 months ago

All Apple products are released as public beta tests. This is not shocking.
How so? I would say this is more of a windows issue than a Mac, at least the Mac software update is for security reasons, more than bug fixes.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
18 months ago
I don't think this is new. In fact, IIRC, none of the Macs that I bought throughout the years came with the last OS update installed. I think I updated the OS in the first day even with the white G5 iMac.

Edit: Also, I don't expect too many bugs this time, because there are no new processors except for the M3 Ultra. When the M4 was released, there were quite a few reports of OS crashes with the M4 Pro and M4 Max, but all of that is fixed by now (at least I haven't found more complaints about M4-related crashes).
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)