Apple recently released new hardware models for Mac Minis and MacBook Pros which use Apple’s M4 processors. As those new machines are purchased by companies, schools or institutions and get loaded into those organization’s Apple Business Manager (ABM) or Apple School Manager (ASM) instances though, new device listings for M4 Mac Minis and M4 MacBook Pros aren’t appearing. What is appearing are 21.5 inch iMacs, which does not appear to be an iMac hardware model that Apple is selling as of November 2024.

Why is this? I’ve observed over time that the 21.5 inch iMac listing is what appears for new hardware models in ABM / ASM when Apple hasn’t yet updated ABM / ASM with the information for the newly-released hardware model.

You should be able to confirm in ABM / ASM if the part number listed for the Mac in question matches up with what you’re expecting, in place of being the part number for a 21.5 inch iMac. In this example, the part number appearing is MX2E3ZE/A, which corresponds to a part number for a 2024 14 inch MacBook Pro.

Historically, once Apple updated ABM / ASM with the updated hardware model information, this display issue in ABM / ASM has corrected itself. Affected device listings switched from displaying as 21.5 inch iMacs to whatever actual hardware model the device is.