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The rumor mill is turning around Apple again, and this time we’ve heard rumors on the subject of what Macs will release in 2023 – and to prepare for some disappointments.
This all comes from a reputable source on all things Apple, Mark Gurman. In his latest Bloomberg (opens in new tab) newsletter, he talks about the future of MacBooks, the Mac Pro, and the iMac (or what’s not the future – at least not this year – in the latter case, as you’ll see). As always, treat rumors with caution, even those from more reliable sources.
According to Gurman, we will see new MacBook Pros in the first half of 2023, but they will have exactly the same design and features as the existing 14-inch and 16-inch models, with the only real upgrade being the addition of M2 Pro and M2 Max -potato chips. But even on that front, the performance boost will be “marginal,” Gurman claims.
What might be even more exciting are Apple’s apparent plans for a MacBook Air 15-inch laptop, which could be the “saving grace” for the entire Mac lineup this year, though Gurman isn’t saying what it’ll pack. He also tells us that a previously rumored MacBook 12-inch isn’t coming, or at least isn’t on the roadmap for the foreseeable future.
There will be a new Mac Pro for 2023, but it is also disappointing in some respects. Gurman believes that a high-end Mac Pro spin, with a 48-core CPU (up to 152 cores for graphics) has been canceled, and that Apple will instead simply release a model with the M2 Ultra chip on the brings to market. That raises some question marks about how it will compare in value to the Mac Studio, Gurman notes, and the new Mac Pro will presumably look similar to the 2019 version as well.
There’s further disappointment over an apparent change that means system RAM isn’t user-upgradeable, as the memory is soldered directly to the motherboard.
To round off the rather lackluster state of affairs, it seems unlikely that a larger iMac Pro, which Apple has considered as a possibility – appearing on and off the product roadmap, according to Gurman – is now unlikely to appear. Gurman notes, “I’d be surprised at this point if it arrives in 2023.”
As for a refreshed iMac 24-inch, that won’t happen until the M3 SoC is apparently ready, so that’s probably 2024 or maybe the end of this year.
Analysis: A rather bleak but not unexpected rumor dump
If all this makes for a somewhat gloomy reading – which it mainly does – then we must remember that this is only informed speculation, and that Gurman could be wrong on some (or many) points. Even if he’s right, what Apple thinks now may change in the future.
In any case, assuming the above rumors are correct, it’s no real surprise to learn that the MacBook Pros won’t change much from the current incarnations. Although Gurman’s labeling the performance improvement over current models as “marginal” isn’t exactly exciting.
We expected those refreshes to arrive in late 2022, if you remember, and when it became clear that it wasn’t, the rumored launch schedule became Q1 of 2023. Now Gurman says the first half of the year, which seems to indicate that a Q1 release may not happen – another minor disappointment.
We didn’t see the Apple silicon-powered Mac Pro at CES 2023 as we’d hoped, and maybe now we know why – maybe there’s still something up in the air with the machine. However the Mac Pro turns out, presumably Apple needs to make it fit and seem like a sensible proposition within its own lineup – though the mention of a possible step back in terms of non-upgradable RAM is an unwelcome thought. With an expensive PC like this, restrictions on component upgrades are a frustration to say the least.
Still, we have that MacBook Air 15-inch still potentially arriving for 2023, which could make up for much of the rest of the Mac range coming to market this year, as there are few differences compared to existing models, or otherwise disappointing. A larger MacBook Air has long been rumored, but it never actually appeared, but perhaps now is the time: there are certainly some big fans of the idea of a 15-inch version of the laptop (as well as some people who be more careful with it).
Through Apple insider (opens in new tab)