how long does a mac take to be built?

I ordered my very first Mac a few days ago. A 13 inch white macbook 2.0 ghz (i prefer the traditional style and flare of the apple image - same with my ipod's) with an upgraded 80 gigs of hard drive space and 1 gig of ram. When choosing the options, the website anticipated shipping within 2-3 days. However, now once the order is placed and I am giddy wtih excitement for my new macbook, the Order Status option on the website indicates a shipdate of July 25th and an even more absurd delivery date of August 1st. Am I really going to have to wait this long? Reading forums and browsing the apple website can really only tide me over for so long...

I assume the upgrades that I chose are fairly common. Basically, it is the same configuration as the black model, without paying the extra $150 for the black case. Presumably then, the Apple warehouse would anticipate this and keep a certain number of either this specification or equally common ones on hand?


Nik

(ps: i am just now switching but have been an Apple enthusiest for a solid 4 or 5 years)

Stock is one of those things that it's hard to tell. In order to keep costs to a minimum and keep the least amount of cash tied up in unsold merchandise, Apple tries to keep less than a 24 hour supply of unsold complete hardware in the pipeline. That doesn't include merchandise for their own stores, which are accounted for as if they were sold to a reseller, or merchandise that has been marked for delivery to actual resellers. The more unsold merchandise that is sitting around, the more money they lose as the merchandise depreciates in value. Based on that, it could take a few days for your machine to be made and shipped.

i agree with "it could take a few days for your machine to be made and shipped" but i dont think that it will take until 1st august !!

It doesn't really take longer than a day to actually make. It's a couple of parts that have to be thrown together, partly by machine, partly by some worker. The problem is usually that apple doesn't have enough workforce to meet demand, and shipping from the far east is a pain. I could've chosen a standard 20" iMac that would've arrived from Holland in about 3-4 working days. But I wanted a fresh iMac, with a larger drive, and English OS but with swiss keyboard. So They had to fly it in from Hong Kong. Took 2 weeks, arrived exactly on my 18th birthday.

thats a sweet 18th birthday gift.

I am just anxious becuase I will be heading back to school in about 4 weeks and Id like to get most of my essential information and media transfered before then. And I'm a gadget nut, so I want to tinker around with everything.

Thanks for your help though


[anxiously waiting]

I ordered my Macbook 2.0ghz, 80gig HD, 512mb RAM, last monday and it still hasn't shipped. I'm in no huge rush though. Apple is saying it will ship by the 19th which is Wednesday, and I paid for 2 day shipping, so it should be here Friday, a week and a half isn't so bad. The worst thing is that I ordered a neoprene sleeve, a mighty mouse, and a Miglia TV card, and they have all arrive, but I have nothing to use them with!!!