With yesterday’s report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, it looks like 2023 will be another big year for the Mac and will continue the amazing transition to Apple Silicon since 2020. According to Gurman, the next-generation MacBook Pros are slated to launch in early 2023. Those models are expected to feature the M2 Pro and M2 Max chips. Many analysts were expecting a refresh for those machines this fall, and sources indicated that both of those system-on-chips would be the first to feature a 3nm process. However, with supply constraints, Apple had to delay the release to another time. Still, we don’t expect other major changes besides the improved performance. Therefore, you should consider buying the current generation MacBook Pros right now as we’ve seen huge discounts for those models, especially during the holiday season.
While we’re talking about professional products, Apple is also planning an all-new Mac Pro with Apple Silicon. This would be the last Mac to transition to Apple Silicon. Originally, Apple had planned to develop both the M2 Ultra and M2 Extreme chip options for the upcoming workstation; however, Gurman believes that Apple scrapped the latter as development had been proven too ambitious. With that said, the upcoming M2 Ultra would be equipped with a maximum of 24 CPU cores, 76 GPU cores, and at least 192GB of RAM. The upcoming model will retain expandability just like the current Mac Pro. Do remember that the Intel Mac Pro can be upgraded to 1.5TB of RAM, so it would make sense if Apple keeps the existing Mac Pro around when Apple introduces the future generation Mac Pro, possibly next June with a release date in December.
The best accessory for a Mac is arguably an external monitor, and Apple hit a home run when they introduced the Studio Display earlier this year, which offers the best integration for any Mac. The other monitor that Apple sells is the Pro Display XDR, which hasn’t seen an update since its original introduction in 2019. Now, Gurman reported that we could see new monitors that are powered by Apple Silicon. What I would really love to see is a major update to the Pro Display XDR. That display lacks many of the key features that made the Studio Display’s integration so great, including the built-in Ultrawide camera with Center Stage, six-speaker setup, and USB-C ports that offer very fast transfer speeds compared to the ones in the Pro Display XDR. (True fact: both the “low-cost” iPad 10 and the most expensive Pro Display XDR have at least one USB-C port that supports laughably slow USB 2.0 speeds.) With that said, the Pro Display XDR could learn from its cheaper counterpart to make it a more compelling product for professionals, and we could also see another version of the Studio Display with a mini-LED display with ProMotion technology to perfectly complement the MacBook Pros.
Finally, Apple is also developing both an upcoming iMac with an M3 chip as well as an upgraded Mac mini with M2/M2 Pro chip configurations, which could also replace the aging higher-end Intel-based Mac mini from 2018. Both of those machines have not seen an update since May 2021 and November 2020, respectively. However, because both of those are desktop computers, and laptops have been much more popular than desktops these days, Apple tends to update their desktop models less frequently than they do with laptops. While we can’t say anything about the release date for the upcoming Mac mini, we could see an updated iMac as soon as the end of 2023.
We couldn’t be more excited for the Mac next year as it’s very evident that the Mac is still very important to Apple as that’s the product that started Apple since its origins. With everything they’ve learned from iPhone and iPad, Apple could bring the same technologies to the Mac for the best experience for customers than ever before.
