Bloomberg: 13-Inch MacBook Pro With M3 Chip Unlikely to Be Announced at 'Scary Fast' Event

canon-cinema-0r said:
But that could mean two things for the iMac: it won't be a base 24" model, but a bigger Pro, or they only refresh that to M2, which would be a colossal mistake.
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Yeah. Updating the 24" iMac to M2 - at such an embarrassingly late stage - would be pretty small beer and something to be snuck out in a press release.

OTOH, having the M3 debut in an iMac before putting it in the flagship MacBook range doesn't sound plausible either - I'd have thought it would be last in line - and it would be really annoying for non-iMac-fans if family Minis and Studios didn't appear alongside it.

There's another possibility: when the 24" iMac was released it was pretty bizarre that there were two different designs - one with just two TB ports and one with two extra (non-TB) USB-C ports - which also turned out to have a different cooling system. That would have made far more sense if the "better" model had originally been intended to have a M1 Pro (which could support 4 TB ports and would also need extra cooling).

So maybe they're going to release a M2 Pro iMac 24" - that would be a bit more newsworthy than just a bump to M2.
(Still think that M3 Pro/Max 14" 16" MBPs are most likely given the tagline - they could launch a M3 Pro iMac alongside that, but it would be as if millions of Mac Mini and Studio fans cried out in terror and were never silenced...)

phenste said:
there must be a surprisingly vibrant market for these MBPs for them to still be on sale…easily the most confusing Mac currently on the market
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The low-end MacBook Not-Really-Pro price slot has been confusing since it appeared in 2016 as 'The 13" Mac Book Pro Without Touch Bar' and then morphed into The '13" MacBook Pro With TouchBar but Only 2 Ports' - but at least in the Intel days it had a CPU that was intermediate between the Air and the "full" MacBook Pro 13". With the move to Apple Silicon, its running the same CPU as the Air with maybe a slight edge due to better cooling. It was surprising that it was one of the first Macs to get Apple Silicon and baffling that it got upgraded to M2 so quickly... I mean, its OK if you prefer the design over the Air, but its unlike Apple to have products that overlap so much.

So, either Apple is nuts or these things have a large - or strategically important - market. My suspicion is that they have some large corporate/government/education customer(s) who put out invitations-to-tender for '13" MacBook Pro' and would need twelve rounds of committee meetings to change that to "MacBook Air".

Anyway, if the 13" MBP gets upgraded to M3 that would most likely happen alongside the MBA - if Apple break with (a very short) tradition and launch M3 Pro/Max before the "base" M3 then its' no surprise that the 13" MBP would be skipped.
 
Zest28 said:
Maybe the iPhone 15 sales are disappointing and Apple needs to generate revenue fast before the year end. Hence why the sudden increase in price of Apple services and rushing the 14" and 16" MBP update.

If the iPhone 15 was selling like crazy, TSMC would not have had capacity to mass produce the 3nm M3 Pro and M3 Max chips.

However, this is just speculation on my side.
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Away from fan sites, there are MANY articles by respected journalism sites that claim that iPhone sales are down... including one published by the SAME company that employs Gurman. Apparently, enthusiast sites just aren't wanting to post that news. There was a report here about Tim Cooks recent China visit in response to a dip in sales there, but otherwise not much chatter about it. Much ado about nothing... or collective denial? TBD. Some third party news sites are claiming that dip is in "double digits" which- if true- seems very big news for the shareholders among us.

However, that would explain what could easily be viewed as a "mad scramble" to get new product out to add to most important quarter sales vs. even a week or so ago when the most "in the know" rumor sources were claiming no new Macs in 2023 and no more events in 2023.

There's also this whole "expensive" N3B vs. "less expensive" N3E thing that has long been positioned as iPhone gets N3B 3nm while Macs wait for N3E. If there are M3 Macs next week, they are presumably N3B since N3E has been cast as coming in the future. Or there has been some leap forward in N3E manufacturing capability but- if so- why didn't it leap just a little further so iPhone could use it too?

As in all things: major, big surprises vs. well-established expectations generates so many questions. Clarity about some of them is only a few days away now. Trick or Treat?
 
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This model is not needed anymore.
If you do some "basic" computing, the air will be more than enough, and the 14" picks up the slack if you need more power.
I'm all for simpplifying the lineup.
I dream of a Macbook, Macbook Air and MacBook Pro lineup.
 
zalesak said:
I am not 100% sure, but i read somewhere that for 5k with more than 60Hz you need actually Thunderbolt 5 which was introduced just few weeks ago, v4 can't handle it.
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That would actually be the main (the only, IMHO) justification for an "iMac Pro" with a large HDR+HFR display - it could use a custom internal interface (maybe using two TB4/DP1.4 ports direct from the SoC).

...just like the original 5k iMac which could which came out before any widely available interface could do 5k with a single cable.
 
erikkfi said:
I don’t understand why you need a “base version” of the MacBook Pro. Isn’t that a MacBook Air?
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It’s not completely redundant. Cheaper than regular Pros due to using older design and less powerful components, but better performance than Airs due to active cooling, also better battery life than Airs due to being thicker. Seems to hit the spot for enough people that it keeps being offered. Let them have it I say. (As if we have any say haha)
I’d also be sad to see it go since it’s the last device with Touch Bar. It was a feature that I think was or could have been very useful, like 3D Touch.
 
erikkfi said:
I don’t understand why you need a “base version” of the MacBook Pro. Isn’t that a MacBook Air?
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In theory I agree. However in practice I know at least 5 groups of people buying this:
1) People who just love the touch bar
2) People who want the absolute best battery life for the screen size
3) Corporate customers (as others here have mentioned), for whatever reason
4) Misguided people who buy just because of the "Pro" name
5) People whose top concern is thermal management

For the fifth group, it can be especially compelling. I know several touring music bands who buy 13" MBP because their live audio workflows do not take much processing power, but since they often perform outdoors in hot weather, they need the coolest-running machine possible. One group I know actually had a 16" Pro overheat, a 13" Air overheat, and a 13" Pro run like a champ, so they stuck with it. The Pro's fan + base processor does make a significant difference over the passively-cooled Air for sustained low-core workloads and warm environments.
 
Why? Seems like iMac and this are the only 2 machines that would get it at launch?? 1 desktop and 1 laptop, 15” Air is too new to change, both Air’s would stay synonymous, and Mac mini too recently updated as well. Seems odd it wouldn’t come in this machine.

I should also mention, I’m looking forward to when this machine is discontinued and replaced by and “SE” style new machine designed for lower end. This is the only portable M2/3 with a fan that’s not Pro/Max/Ultra, but the body style is ooooooooold. Time for something to replace it.
 
Nik said:
Hence, a 20-minute event just for iMacs and MacBook Pros… That seems unlikely, something else is coming as well, otherwise a dedicated event doesn't make sense.
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Maybe Apple has figured out how to be a little unpredictable (like it use to be) so people can be "surprised" like a "trick or treat" type of event.

Many thought that there would not be an event in October, but "surprise".

But I have to admit...this time around...I am unsure what to expect. Apple wore a costume this month, even the "predictors" kept changing their story weekly when they went to get some candy..

Will be interesting next week.
 
Patchwork said:
That would definitely explain the unusual timing as Apple don’t normally do product launches in the evening. Maybe it’s the return of Pippin😄
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Maybe they are catering to the Chinese market this time around...
 
reklex said:
so the M3 Pro and Max dropping is set in stone in less than 2 weeks?

my bank account won’t like this
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Don't know about the drop, but you can be sure whatever gets dropped will get stones thrown at it in the forums.

My bank account won't like an M3 14" MBP either, even if my M1 is way fast enough...

Of course, since it's a Finder icon it could be a total redesign of Finder to make it2x as fast...
 
erikkfi said:
I don’t understand why you need a “base version” of the MacBook Pro. Isn’t that a MacBook Air?
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awshucks said:
Barely anyone wants this weird model; that’s probably why they’re discontinuing it
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I've heard claims that the 13" MBP is still one of Apple's best selling computers. As long as that is the case I guess they'll keep it around. I think that there's a notion that as a "Pro" machine it is more capable than the MacBook Air. There are some edge cases where that is the case, and even the basic M1's and M2's are more than capable for most users, but the Air is certainly a capable machine too.
 
headlessmike said:
I've heard claims that the 13" MBP is still one of Apple's best selling computers. As long as that is the case I guess they'll keep it around. I think that there's a notion that as a "Pro" machine it is more capable than the MacBook Air. There are some edge cases where that is the case, and even the basic M1's and M2's are more than capable for most users, but the Air is certainly a capable machine too.
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They sell a lot of them in the business world, for heavy continuous work loads, it's far better than the Air.
I got the M1 air initially, but sent it back and replaced it with the 13" pro, I've had it for 3 years now, best lap top I've ever had and much better than the air!
 
I think the real "Scary Fast" part will be the quickness of the presentation. M3 this blah, blah M3 that blah. blah. Available in all the colors of the rainbow.
 
This means that the main models in the running for announcement at the event are the iMac and the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro, all with M3-series chips. Gurman added that he is not expecting to see any other refreshed devices at the event, including iPads or AirPods.
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It still seems strange to me that Apple would announce MacBook Pros with M3 Pro and M3 Max chips before MacBooks get the regular M3 chip. That's different than before when Apple introduced the M1 and M2 chips first followed later by M1 Pro/M1 Max and M2 Pro/M2 Max chips.
 
So, after battlemage between Gurman and Kuo, now we are facing fight between Gurman and Gurman.....

With friends like that, who needs enemy. Oh wait :p
 
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