Apple has a new chip on the horizon. As the M2 gets older, it's almost time for the Apple Silicon M3 to come around. It looks like we may get it as early as October as well. In his latest Power On newsletter, Mark Gurman said that Apple is looking at unveiling the M3 later this year, in October, with an iMac refresh.
The iMac will be the first Mac to get the M3 treatment, which makes sense, given that it skipped an M2 refresh. This will be the first refresh for the iMac since its launch back in 2021, which came with the M1 and an all-new design.
MacBook Air and Pro to get M3 later
Apple is set to hold a September event to unveil the next best iPhone, the iPhone 15. However, Gurman says Apple has another launch in October, likely for Macs, more specifically the M3 iMac.
Gurman wrote, "Now that Apple has gotten the 15-inch MacBook Air and new M2 Ultra-based Macs out the door, the October launch could feature the first Macs with M3 chips. October is too early for new high-end MacBook Pros or desktops, so the first beneficiaries of the new chip should be the next iMac, 13-inch MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro."
It's likely that the next MacBook Air is at least another year away, so it would be likely that the MacBook Pro with M3 chips arrives earlier in 2024, and the MacBook Air later in the year. A design change doesn't seem to be on the cards for any of these Macs, however, so it likely will just be a chip upgrade.
Gurman also commented that the iPad is unlikely to be featured at this launch. The iPad Pro will get the M3 and OLED screens with a refresh due in 2024. So for 2023, it looks like we may be looking at an iMac refresh in addition to the regularly scheduled iPhone and Apple Watch refreshes.
