With the M2 Mac family now completed, Apple is already planning to release its first batch of M3 Macs. As already reported, a new 24-inch iMac, a 13-inch MacBook Air, and a 13-inch MacBook Pro should get the M3 processor as soon as this October.
Now, in his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman writes when we should expect the high-end M3 Pro and M3 Max MacBook Pro as well as a new generation of the Mac mini. He believes the M3 Pro and M3 Max variants could “probably” be announced by the middle of 2024 at the latest.
Apple usually takes around 15 months to release a high-end MacBook Pro. For the 2021 model, it was released in November, and the M2 Pro and M2 Max only landed in January 2023. That said, an M3 Pro and M3 Max MacBook Pro could be announced in a spring event or WWDC 2024.
For the Mac mini, Gurman expects that an M3 variation could take longer, as he believes it won’t be available before late 2024 at the earliest. “It’s a sure thing that an M3 version of the Mac mini is eventually coming,” he writes.
One of the reasons why the Mac mini won’t get the M3 chip alongside the iMac, MacBook Air, or entry-level MacBook Pro is due to its high-end offering. Starting with the M2 chip, Apple started selling an M2 Pro option for the Mac mini. Since the M Pro and M Max chips are announced altogether, that means Apple needs to wait a bit longer to introduce this Mac.
These upcoming Macs are exciting because Apple is expected to use TSMC’s new 3nm process, which will make this new family of processors faster and more power efficient than the current M2 generation.
Even though Apple made a massive jump in machine learning and neural engine, it didn’t offer a huge speed bump when comparing M2 to M1, M2 Pro to M1 Pro, etc. For the M3 series, we will likely see the Macs taking new heights.
In our roundup article below, you can learn more about the M3 Macs, including the new Mac Studio, Mac Pro, and the 15-inch MacBook Air.
