A new report from Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman indicates several new Macs coming to Apple’s lineup over the next few months, largely confirming previous reports from analysts and sources, as well as Gurman’s previous reports. Gurman cites third-party developer logs that contain evidence that Apple engineers or testers used new Macs to test them for popular software before release.
The most clearly visible Mac in these magazines is the long-rumored 15-inch MacBook Air. It’s labeled “Mac 15.3″and has the same screen resolution as the 14-inch MacBook Pro (3024×1964). The laptop has 8GB of RAM and a chip with eight CPU cores and 10 GPU cores, just like many Mac M2s already on the market.
Gurman also reports that Apple is preparing the M3 chip for a debut in the near future, which is of course not surprising. He claims that the M3 will switch to a new 3nm manufacturing process (it was 5nm for the M2), just like the chip for the 2023 flagship iPhones. While he doesn’t specify which ones might ship with the M3 and which ones with the current M2, he does write that Apple is also working on updates for the 13-inch MacBook Air, 24-inch iMac and, surprisingly, the 13-inch MacBook Pro.
Gurman didn’t specify if the 13-inch MacBook Pro will get some kind of redesign or if it will still look and feel the same. However, he predicts that Apple will introduce M3-based updates to 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models in the first half of 2024—about a year after the M2-based updates.
The Bloomberg report is written in the context of a severe downturn in Apple Mac sales; IDC data showed shipments fell more than 40 percent in the first quarter. The entire PC market suffered a downturn when the mid-pandemic boom ended, but Macs were far from immune, even though they sometimes take a different path in the market than other machines.
The article didn’t list prices or launch dates for the upcoming 15-inch MacBook Air or the first wave of Mac M3s—only their existence.