We’re generally fans of Apple’s one-year-old Mac Studio desktop and are skeptical of Apple’s Silicon Mac Pro update a year later. The studio satisfies many of the Mac Pro’s target audience’s needs for a smaller device that costs less money, while the Apple Silicon Mac Pro appears to get rid of at least some of the upgradeability and versatility of past generations.
Reports have suggested that Apple may be skipping an update to the M2-based Mac Studio to make the planned Mac Pro more attractive to potential buyers when it arrives. But that doesn’t mean Mac Studio will disappear; Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says a couple of updates to Mac Studio are “in the pipeline,”though he doesn’t know when they’ll be released. (We’re guessing the difference between the two models comes down to which processor they use; the Studio M1 Mac and M1 Ultra versions have a number of differences beyond pure CPU and GPU speed.)
This nugget is one of several in an article summarizing Apple’s plans for the Worldwide Developers Conference in June. Gurman adds small details to several stories he has told in the recent past; Of particular interest to Mac users is the 15-inch MacBook Air, which he says will likely include an M2 processor and the same 3024×1964 screen resolution as the 14-inch MacBook Pro late last week, he said. Now Gurman says that Apple plans to announce the new Air at WWDC.
Macs with newer M3 processors, including updated versions of the 13-inch MacBook Air and Pro, could arrive “this year or sometime in 2024.”Gurman believes that all laptops announced during WWDC will continue to use M2 processors, and the other MacBook models mentioned already include M2.
Apple’s biggest announcement at WWDC is expected to be a March New York Times report highlighting ongoing internal “skepticism”about the product, from its features and design to release timing and its price (allegedly “roughly $3,000”).
There will still be many software announcements at WWDC, but Gurman expects most of them to be low-key. He says updates to iOS, iPadOS and macOS this year will be relatively minor, although iOS and iPadOS could be changed to allow app downloads to comply with new European Union regulations.
The exception is watchOS, which Gurman says is receiving “the biggest update… since the first version was released in 2015.” The evolution of watchOS and the Apple Watch has been gradual; Originally conceived as a versatile extension for your phone, its focus has gradually shifted from general purpose apps to health and fitness. While Gurman does not elaborate on what this update entails, it is reported that it will have an “updated interface”.