Almost as soon as one Apple product is announced, speculation about the next iteration begins. And so we probably shouldn't be surprised that following the new MacBook Pros that have just launched with Apple's M2 chips, we're already talking about the M3. That is, if people have stopped getting excited about the charging cable.
Last week we reported that a new MacBook Air with the M3 chip could be coming this year, and now Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who is well-known for predicting Apple's behaviour, seems to have corroborated this rumour. Gurman has said in his newsletter (opens in new tab) that a better-performing M3 series will be coming out late this year or early next year. So it looks like we'll be updating our best MacBooks post sooner rather than later.
Gurman also stated that Apple is already working on M3 versions of the iMac and the MacBook Air. "And it's developing a MacBook Pro revamp for 2025 with OLED screens and long-awaited touch support." We can't say we've been waiting in particular for touch support for the MacBook, but nevertheless that does sound interesting. Although 2025 feels like a long way away.
So could the M3 go straight to the MacBook Air, making the Air more powerful than the Pro? It sounds like it. Though seeing as the Air was only refreshed last year, that would make for a pretty speedy refresh cycle.
Separately, as we noted last week, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has suggested that we'll be getting new 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros in 2024, and these will feature the M3 chips.
(1/2)I expect the next new MacBook Pro models, which will adopt M3 Pro/M3 Max processors made by 3nm (likely TSMC's N3P or N3S), will go to mass production in 1H24. https://t.co/8JR4LOHFVsJanuary 17, 2023
We do know that the M3 chip is being worked on, with Apple's chipmaking partner TSMC having started mass production of M3 chips in late December last year. The chips are expected to offer improved performance and better power efficiency than the M2 chips. Although we wonder whether the average consumer will really be able to tell the difference, with most people probably not using the M2 chips to their full capacity.
So, in summary, expect some M3 chips sometime soon in some Apple products, but exactly which ones and when they'll arrive remains to be seen.
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