How long do Macs receive new MacOS updates for?

[The Cockney Rebel]

I read in a magazine that the M1s will only receive one more MacOS update.

Surely that can't be right?

I have two M2s, so hope they will be supported for a few more versions of MacOS, before they are retired.

Would appreciate and advice/knowledge.

Thanks.

 

[Abazigal]

I would like to think about 6-7 years of software updates on average. My 2011 iMac got 6 years of upgrades, same for my 2017 iMac as well.

So for my M1 MBA, I think maybe till 2026 or 2027. At least 2 more years. The M2 was released in 2022, so till 2028 or 2029 hopefully? Ultimately, the ball is in Apple's court.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

I would like to think about 6-7 years of software updates on average. My 2011 iMac got 6 years of upgrades, same for my 2017 iMac as well.

So for my M1 MBA, I think maybe till 2026 or 2027. At least 2 more years. The M2 was released in 2022, so till 2028 or 2029 hopefully? Ultimately, the ball is in Apple's court.

Thanks for the reply.

That sounds reasonable 👍🏼.

 

[ewu]

my imac 2017 27 inch end of support at the end of this year, so totally 7 years

 

[Guenter]

We have no clou about apples update policy with m series macs. For intel macs the update was based on model, independent on the cpu (e.g. i3, i5 or i7). Due to similaritys of the Hardware it is hard to explain why the support of an m1 mini should be different to a m1 macbook. I dont think that the support of an m2pro mini will be longer than the support of a m2 mini, both are announced at the same time.
But if the support of the macs depends only on the generation of the cpu, the support for the mac studio is in some cases one year less than the support of a macbook. As i said we dont know for now.

 

[benwiggy]

I read in a magazine that the M1s will only receive one more MacOS update.

Surely that can't be right?

One more, after Tahoe, you mean? OS 27 could be the last, so you wouldn't get 28 in September 2027, but you'd still have 3 more years of security updates and general compatibility with the newest apps.

We can only hope that because the M1s are Apple's own in-house hardware, support times will be longer than before, when they relied on other manufacturers for components. (OK, they still use Qualcomm..)

Apple usually ends support for Macs when they lack some necessary hardware, like Metal-compliant GPUs; or if Apple considers that the performance 'experience' isn't good enough. There are some cases where people have been unable to identify the difference between models either side of the cut-off; but some models get supported for longer than average, and others less. That suggests it's not just a ticking clock from release. You can either subscribe to the theory that they're just tossing a coin to piss people off, or that there are bona fide reasons why it's impractical.


I think it would be very hard for Apple to end support for M1 Pro or M1 Max with 32Gb RAM, just because a base M1 with 8Gb RAM isn't good enough.

 

[dmccloud]

I read in a magazine that the M1s will only receive one more MacOS update.

Surely that can't be right?

I have two M2s, so hope they will be supported for a few more versions of MacOS, before they are retired.

Would appreciate and advice/knowledge.

Thanks.

The truth is that only Apple could answer that question. Apple Silicon on the Mac has not been around long enough to have any product reach the end of OS support, and using the Intel timelines is a fools' errand. The only thing we know at this time is that Tahoe will be the last OS to support Intel. Beyond that everything else would be speculation.

 

[Basic75]

Nobody outside of Apple can predict the future, but ArsTechnica regularly does an analysis of the past.

One last look at software support as macOS 26 Tahoe winds down the Intel Mac era

In the end, Intel Macs have mostly gotten a better deal than PowerPC Macs did.

arstechnica.com

 

[enossified]

Both my 2009 MacBook Pro and my 2011 iMac could use new OSes for six years.

The last OS I installed on the MB Pro was El Capitan from 2015, it cannot use Sierra from 2016.

The last OS I installed on the iMac was High Sierra from 2017, it cannot use Mojave from 2018.

I’m expecting that my 2020 M1 MB Air will not be able to use OS28 when it drops in 2027.

BTW both of my old Macs are still running just fine, I keep them around for tasks that the MB Air can’t do without adding external hardware, like ripping and burning CDs.

 

[BrianBaughn]

I've never heard about anyone who could say what the last update for a recent Mac would be.

You can look at historical data on the web…such as everymac.com.