Pre order vs Available. Whats the difference?

Right. When you submit your order with Apple, you’ll get an estimated delivery date. Ofc, the exact time depends on what the product is, what’s it’s configuration, and what’s your location. Can’t guarantee that you’d get something before it hits store shelves, but odds of it are yes

Hey there!

When a product is available for Pre-Order, that means that the product hasn't left the assembly line yet, and is still being made. When a product is available itself, that means that units have already rolled off of the assembly line, and are available for purchase.

Also, one thing to note is Apple allocates different amounts of stock for a certain channel during each quarter. For instance, Apple may allocate more stock to the education channel over an authorized reseller channel in August time, as more educators and students will be ordering. There's no way to check to see which channel has more reserved, unless you work at Apple and work on allocating products.

Hope this helped!

When you made your order, you'll get the estimated delivery date.