When it comes to Macs, there have been few surprises so far this year: In January, Apple introduced the MacBook Pro M2 Pro and M2 Max – plus the Mac mini M2 and M2 Pro. Many observers are now waiting for fresh hardware to be available for the WWDC keynote 2023 planned for June 5th. The usually well-informed Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman ventured in his weekend newsletter now some predictions.
The small workstation is alive
First the good news: According to Gurman’s sources, the Mac Studio that was introduced last spring is not just a one-off. Instead, Apple will continue to pursue the small workstation and do not see it as a stopgap for the first Mac Pro with Apple Silicon, which has not yet appeared.
However, Gurman does not yet know when the next Mac Studio will be released – but most likely not yet for WWDC. At least two “follow-ups” are in the pipeline on the Apple side. The current Mac Studio was released along with the Studio Display in March 2022. The machine has the form factor of an enlarged Mac mini and can be configured with Apple’s current fastest M1 chips up to the M1 Ultra. An M3 Max and M3 Ultra would probably fit the next generation, which speaks for a release in the coming year.
MacBook Air 15 and MacBook Pro 13
When it comes to notebooks, Gurman now believes that up to three new devices will be shown at WWDC 2023. However, Gurman assumes that Apple will give the new MacBook Air with a 15-inch display an “M2-like” processor – the 13.6-inch device from last year already had this. Accordingly, Apple does not seem to have managed to ramp up 3 nm SoC production early. “Major Mac changes are coming later”, writes the Bloomberg journalist with reference to log files collected by Apple device developers have.
It remains unclear what Apple is doing with the 13.6-inch MacBook Air M2. The group could leave it as it is or equip it with an M2 Pro – this would also be an option for the 15-inch device. Finally, Gurman has also heard that Apple will continue the MacBook Pro with 13 inches and touch bar. This was last updated in the summer of 2022, back then with an M2 chip. Again, the question arises as to what Apple will do without the M3. It is also conceivable that Apple will only use the WWDC for the MacBook Air M2 15 and will show the other new notebooks together with the expected M3 in the coming months. The WWDC is supposed to be all about Apple’s first mixed reality headset anyway.
(bsc)
