Why buyers of the M4 MacBook just before the M5 launch are the real winners: Apple offers a “free upgrade” [Daily IT Pick]

According to Financial News, Apple Inc. has begun offering free upgrades to customers who bought a MacBook with M4 chip after the company unveiled new MacBook models powered by the Apple M5 chip. The upgrade applies only to orders that have not yet shipped, with Apple raising the specifications of those pending orders.
On December 7, industry sources and posts on MacSSA and other related communities reported that Apple’s official website had canceled recent orders for the MacBook with M4 chip. Customers were notified, "Because your ordered product has not yet shipped, we will automatically upgrade it at no additional cost."
Buyers say there does not appear to be a fixed rule for upgrading the Solid-state drive (SSD) or memory. Instead, Apple seems to be assigning an Apple M5 model with similar overall specifications, based on the configuration selected at the time of the original order.
One customer who had ordered a MacBook with M4 Max chip and a 1TB SSD wrote, "When you choose the Apple M5 Max chip, the SSD options start at 2TB, so even though I ordered 1TB, it was upgraded to 2TB." Another user said, "I ordered a model with the base Apple M4 chip and a 512GB SSD, and it was bumped up to 1TB," adding, "Not only is the chipset performance upgraded, but the SSD capacity is larger too, so I’m effectively saving several hundred thousand won."
By contrast, some people who canceled their orders as soon as the new products were announced expressed regret, saying things like, "I’m upset that I missed out on a free upgrade by just a few days," "Next time a new product is coming, I’ll first check whether there’s an automatic upgrade policy," and "I should have checked more carefully whether there was any notice email before canceling."
The newly released Apple M5 Pro chip and Apple M5 Max chip are built on Apple Inc.’s newly designed Fusion Architecture. Both chips feature an 18-core CPU architecture, combining six high-performance "super" cores for speed with twelve efficiency cores optimized for power-efficient multithreaded performance. Apple says the improved CPU can boost workload performance by up to 30%.
MacBook Pro models equipped with the Apple M5 Pro chip and Apple M5 Max chip will go on sale on the 11th. They will be available in two colors: Space Black and Silver. Prices for the 14‐inch MacBook Pro with Apple M5 Pro chip start at 3.49 million won, while the 16‐inch model starts at 4.29 million won. The 14‐inch MacBook Pro with Apple M5 Max chip starts at 5.79 million won, and the 16‐inch version starts at 6.29 million won.
New 13‐inch and 15‐inch MacBook Air models powered by Apple M5 will also launch on the 11th. Color options include Sky Blue, Midnight, Starlight, and Silver. Prices for the 13‐inch MacBook Air start at 1.79 million won, and the 15‐inch model starts at 2.09 million won.
kaya@fnnews.com Choi Hye-rim Reporter