If you’ve been eagerly awaiting the launch of one of the best MacBooks with Apple’s super-efficient M3 chips, we’ve got some disappointing news: they might not hit the market until next year. That’s a big change from previous rumors, which suggested we could see the new laptops arrive any day now.
The idea comes from news channel DigiTimes, which published a report which makes predictions for the next five years of laptop shipments. In the report, DigiTimes claims that Apple is “expected to experience a significant drop in shipments in 2023 as the US brand vendor plans to transition to CPUs built by a 3nm node at TSMC for performance upgrades in 2024.”
In other words, MacBook sales will decline this year because Apple doesn’t plan to launch new laptops before 2024.
That goes against what we’ve heard from a number of reputable speakers and analysts, but DigiTimes isn’t the only voice making this claim – and if it’s true, it’ll be a tough read for Mac fans desperate to to an upgrade.
The muddying of the waters
Apple is currently launching a new wave of chips made using a 3nm process from manufacturer TSMC. This process is expected to result in improved performance and efficiency compared to what you get with the 5nm M2 chips in the current MacBook lineup.
Postponing the launch of MacBooks with the new chips would be a real shame. While the M2 is still an excellent chip, it’s not the seismic jump over the M1 that some people expected. However, if the M3 lives up to expectations, it could take the performance of Apple’s portable Macs to the next level.
Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman has previously claimed that Apple will launch new Macs with M3 chips in October this year, with the 13-inch MacBook Pro, 13-inch MacBook Air and 24-inch iMac the likely candidates. MacRumors also believes that a new Mac is imminent. However, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has disputed this, saying that no new MacBooks will be released before 2024. That leaves the door open for the iMac, but not much else.
Now, however, DigiTimes has put a real dampener on things. We don’t expect an Apple event in October, so the company will likely launch all M3 Macs via press releases. At this point, the waters have been muddied considerably, but if you’ve been waiting to upgrade, you may have to wait a little longer.