Apple has been hard at work transitioning its Macs from using Intel chips to its own silicon. The beloved iMac got the Apple Silicon treatment in 2021 with the Apple M1. Now that the M2 family of chips is here, many are expecting Apple to update the iMac with the new chip. However, it looks like an update isn’t coming as soon as we expected.
Mark Gurman said in his latest Power On newsletter that the iMac isn't getting an update until at least towards the end of this year, and that’s likely because it will skip the M2 generation.
No M2 for iMac, but M3 instead
Apple Silicon offers tremendous performance, both per watt and per dollar, which means that Apple can afford not to have to update every single Mac every year or every generation. The M1 chip is still pretty solid, and given the iMac’s positioning as a home and office computer, it makes sense that Apple would skip a generation.
Gurman believes the same and says, “I haven't seen anything to indicate there will be a new iMac until the M3 chip generation, which won't arrive until the tail end of this year at the earliest or next year. So if you want to stick with the iMac, you'll just have to sit tight.”
Apple’s M2 refreshes are all already here, and the next big Mac update will likely be the Mac Pro, which is the final piece in Apple’s transition to its own silicon. With that in mind, it would make sense that Apple is putting an iMac refresh on the back burner.
So if you want to wait until you can buy the latest iMac addition to the best Macs Apple has around, you will have to wait for the iMac to be refreshed with the M3 chip, which could arrive by the end of this year, or early in 2024.
