MacSpotter research · methodology
How MacSpotter tracks Apple Store inventory.
MacSpotter measures Mac availability from Apple's public pickup interface, checking standard retail configurations across U.S. Apple Store locations and publishing only completed scans.
Short answer
What does MacSpotter actually measure?
MacSpotter records whether Apple offers pickup for a monitored Mac configuration at a particular U.S. Apple Store when a scan runs. It turns those point-in-time observations into current stock pages, availability rates, and detected restocks. It does not claim to know the number of units on a shelf.
Collection process
From Apple pickup response to published finding
- Choose the monitored set. Maintain standard retail Mac configurations and the U.S. Apple Store directory.
- Run a nationwide scan. Request public pickup availability and store observations by configuration, store, and time.
- Wait for completion. Exclude interrupted or partial sweeps from nationwide summaries.
- Calculate the result. Use the latest finished scan for current pages and comparable stored observations for research.
- Keep the denominator visible. State the stores, configurations, scans, and time window behind a figure.
Definitions
How to interpret MacSpotter’s terms
- Available for pickup
- Apple's public pickup response offered the configuration at the store when MacSpotter checked it. Availability can change before checkout.
- Finished scan
- A nationwide collection pass that reached a terminal state. Partial passes are excluded from published nationwide summaries.
- Store check
- One observation of one retail configuration at one Apple Store during a scan.
- Restock event
- A configuration changed from unavailable to available at a store between consecutive observations.
Limitations
What this data cannot tell you
- MacSpotter observes Apple's public pickup interface; it does not access Apple's internal inventory system.
- A pickup result is an observation at a point in time, not a reservation or guarantee. Apple confirms final availability at checkout.
- The dataset covers the standard configurations and U.S. stores MacSpotter actively monitors, not every build-to-order option or country.
- Restocks are inferred between observations, so detection time may be later than the physical stock arrival.
For measured results built with this method, see the Mac Availability Index.