M3 Mac launch dates – revealed!
New iMac and MacBook Air models incoming, others may be delayed
Anyone waiting for an M3-powered iMac or MacBook Air right now – good news! You won’t have much longer to wait. But for other models in Apple’s line-up the picture’s looking a little less rosy, thanks to production and other delays.
Of all the Macs in Apple’s current line-up the 24-inch iMac currently has the oldest Apple silicon, sporting the same M1 chip it launched with way back in 2020. An October update should finally see it get the latest Apple silicon, along with the 13-inch MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models, suggesting Apple’s lower-powered M3 chips will be rolled out first.
The new M3 chips will be based on a 3-nanometre process (3nm) and while precise details on the entire M3 family have yet to be revealed, the M3 Pro is said to feature a 12-core CPU, 18-core GPU and up to
36GB of unified memory.
However, The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple’s upcoming Arizona factory is struggling with a skilled labour shortage. The TSMC-run plant is due to produce 4nm and 3nm chips, the latter of which will find their way into future Macs. Without this expertise, the factory may not be able to produce as many chips as Apple needs – meaning fewer Macs for us to get our hands on.
Elsewhere, journalist Mark Gurman claims that Apple’s 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops (which are expected to be powered by M3 Pro and M3 Max chips) may not launch until mid-2024, while an M3-powered Mac mini could arrive even later. While the former isn’t too surprising – new versions of these laptops only launched in January 2023 – the far-off date for the Mac mini means a long wait for anyone who wants to upgrade.