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Image: Foundry
With the release of the M3 MacBook Air about a month back, Apple’s laptop lineup ended up being current, with each MacBook sporting some variation of the M3 chip, the current in Apple silicon. Now it needs to be time for the other shoe to drop: the updates to the desktop Mac lineup.
Of the 4 designs in Apple’s desktop Mac lineup, just one has an M3 chip, the iMac. That upgrade came 5 months earlier after a two-year wait, and we do not even understand if the remainder of the lines are going to get an upgrade before the M4 gets here. What’s going on with Apple’s desktop Macs? Just Apple understands for sure. We can look at the state of the desktop Mac lineup based on each design and attempt to come to some understanding as to what Apple is believing.
Mac mini
The absence of a M3 upgrade to the Mac mini is confusing when you consider its previous release history. When Apple presented the M1, the Mac mini shared the spotlight with the very first Apple silicon devices. When the M2 Pro gotten here, Apple included a higher-end design with an M2 Pro chip as a lower-cost efficiency device. Both times the Mac mini was at the leading edge of the launch of a brand-new chip.
It appears fitting for Apple to upgrade the Mac mini (left) and Mac Studio in 2024, however it’s not a certainty.
It appears fitting for Apple to upgrade the Mac mini (left) and Mac Studio in 2024, however it’s not a certainty.
Roman Loyola/IDG
It appears fitting for Apple to upgrade the Mac mini (left) and Mac Studio in 2024, however it’s not a certainty.
Roman Loyola/IDG
Roman Loyola/IDG
Things have actually altered this year. Apple launched the M3 and M3 Pro chips at the Scary Fast Mac occasion in October, so it would make good sense that the M3 and M3 Pro Mac mini would follow. That hasn’t occurred and there aren’t any reports to suggest a brand-new design is coming quickly. Apple’s upgrade history before Apple silicon with the Mac mini is erratic at best, however there’s no reason any longer to keep the Mac mini on an older chip unless Apple prepares to avoid a generation or more.
iMac
In case you missed it, Apple upgraded the iMac with an M3 chip (in addition to with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3) last fall. It’s a great upgrade from the M1 it changed, however considering that Apple presented its existing style in 2021, it’s now in the incremental upgrade stage where brand-new iMacs will concentrate on efficiency and very little else. Apple didn’t even present a brand-new color as it finished with the M2 MacBook Air and M3 MacBook Pro.
That’s not to minimize the value of each iMac upgrade moving forward,