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Apple has some new Macs on the way, but unfortunately we won’t see these devices this year – the new hardware is not expected to arrive until early 2023.
This is the latest from well-known leaker Mark Gurman, who made the prediction in his newsletter as published by Bloomberg (opens in new tab).
The theory is — remain skeptical as always, and note that Gurman only believes this is the likely outcome of the near future Apple launches — that refreshed Macs will come in Q1 2023, and that will be MacBook Pro 14-inch. and 16-inch laptops with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips.
That hardware will come along with macOS Ventura 13.3 (and iOS 16.3), Gurman claims, software likely to debut in February or March 2023. With the hardware, though, a February launch seems unlikely — Apple generally waits until spring, so the date for the new MacBook Pros (and whatever else to come) to mark on your calendar is March 2023.
As for what else is in Apple’s product pipeline for PCs, as has long been rumored, Apple is testing a Mac mini with the M2 chip and also an M2 Pro version.
Gurman thinks the M2 Max will push to 12 cores (up from 10 with the M1 Max) and top that up with 38 cores for the integrated GPU (versus 32 cores).
Analysis: Clear Signs MacBook Launch Has Been Delayed
Things are changing quickly in the Mac rumor landscape, because as you may recall, just two weeks ago, Gurman believed the MacBook Pros with the M2 Pro and M2 Max would most likely arrive in November. But to be fair to the leaker, right from the start, when he first aired speculation around these refreshed MacBook Pros, he gave a timeframe of late 2022 to early 2023 for launch — and March (just) qualifies for the launch. last.
Apparently Apple’s plan was to introduce the MacBook Pro models before 2022 was out, but lately we’ve been seeing some pretty clear signs that this isn’t happening, as Gurman outlines in his newsletter.
Namely CEO Tim Cook telling us that Apple’s product line is ready for the holidays, which means there won’t be any new additions. In addition, CFO Luca Maestri also said that Apple expects less revenue growth for the holiday quarter – with Mac revenue falling because we don’t have a new MacBook (while we got a new MacBook Pro last year).
So there you have it. This time around, there was no mention of what to expect from this new M2-toting MacBook Pro 14-inch and 16-inch portable computers, so we can assume nothing has changed on that front. Previous predictions pointed out that there is not much difference with the next-gen machines, the main upgrade being that change of SoC from M1 to M2 variants.
With the Mac mini, the working theory is that there will be a base model with M2 chip, and one with the M2 Pro that will sit above that entry-level PC, but below the Mac Studio. That three-pronged approach makes sense to effectively give buyers a trio of options at the low, mid, and high end of the spectrum.