In what may be the biggest leak in Apple’s history since the iPhone 4, the yet-to-be-revealed M4 Macbook Pro was recently spotted for sale on a Russian classified ads website.
To recap, within a week, the M4 Macbook Pro was revealed by two Russian Youtubers who mysteriously got their hands on the laptop. The device, which Apple had apparently planned to reveal later this month, has appeared on Avito, Russia’s equivalent of Craigslist, with an asking price of 720,000 rubles, or roughly $7,000 USD. However, at this time, those posts have been taken down for violating the website’s policy on selling “nonexistent products.”
The existence of an M4-powered MacBook Pro isn’t exactly a shocker. Industry insiders, such as Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, have long speculated about an upcoming version of Apple’s flagship laptop featuring the M4 chip. According to the unboxing video shared by the YouTubers, the laptop boasts three Thunderbolt 4 ports — an upgrade from the usual two — and comes with a baseline configuration of 16GB of RAM.
What’s truly unexpected, and raises more questions than it answers, is how these devices found their way into Russia. Given that the U.S. has imposed strict sanctions on the country, prohibiting companies like Apple from conducting business there, the presence of multiple M4 MacBooks listed for sale on Avito suggests something far more unusual. As MacRumors notes, it’s possible a batch of these laptops, manufactured in China, was intercepted and smuggled into Russia.
Whatever the case may be, the leaked M4 Macbook Pro models still haven’t been authenticated as real and Apple hasn’t made any statements regarding the laptops.
https://mashable.com/article/leaked-m4-macbooks-appear-on-sale-russian-classfieds