To be fair Apple probably could cram a mini into the appletv form factor by now without an external brick, I think they deliberately kept the old form factor both because it’s recognizable and because it lets the mini and the studio share a footprint and thus accessories like all the various hubs and such designed to act as a base for the machines
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Kuo: First MacBooks With M3 Chip Unlikely to Launch This Year
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You could also make a similar argument for the Mac mini yet it has M2 and M2 Pro options. And it's been nearly 3 years since the 24" iMac has gone without an update which is enough time for Apple to make the necessary internal changes to be able to figure out how to stick a fan in there.
Next year will be a big year for the iPad Pro line.
Apparently it does have a fan (I forgot because I never hear a fan in mine!)
If people are saying the M3 won’t be a big upgrade for the iMac, it may not be for the other computers either (like MacBook Air). I do think the device needs the ability to be spec’d to 24 GB RAM and have equivalent speeds to MBA / Mac Mini.
Funny how many people assume the iMac 24 is fanless given how much discussion there was over the base model having only one fan while the other models have two.
The vision pro is scheduled to launch early next year with an M2 chip. I interpreted this to mean that we will not be seeing the M3 chip any earlier, because Apple knows their own processor timeline best and likely knows the M3 will not be ready by then.
As someone who is waiting to buy a new iMac, one thing I think I can assert strongly is that the iMac does not cannibalize the MBA market.
The iMac is a home computer, the icon of easy-to-use computers. Just plug it in and use it.
So whether the MBA gets an M3 this year is not relevant for the iMac market.
Whether the iMac is updated this year is solely a marketing decision. Will Apple celebrate the silver anniversary of the iMac?
I don't really care about M2 or M3. I do care about:
1) will Apple just stop it with pushing custom ports (i.e., will the new iMac give up Thunderbolt?)
2) replace that damn mouse with something that makes more sense.
3) configure the base with more than 8GB of RAM.
4) make sure it will last at least 10 years (which iMacs in the past easily have done, mine is now 16 years old.)
5) keep the price low enough to be something families buy for the home.
Nice to haves:
6) update screen refresh rates to above 60Hz. Current resolution is fine.
7) side USB port(s).
The MBA line was already updated this year, as others have noted, and were introduced before the school year cycle.
The other "rumor" put out today is a new iPad Air model this fall. That might be a trial run to the total revamp of the iPad line next year. How the iPad products affect MBA sales I do not know, but I supposed there is a small overlap in the portable device demand. Something that does not exist with the home AIO market for a desktop computer.
The iMac is a home computer, the icon of easy-to-use computers. Just plug it in and use it.
So whether the MBA gets an M3 this year is not relevant for the iMac market.
Whether the iMac is updated this year is solely a marketing decision. Will Apple celebrate the silver anniversary of the iMac?
I don't really care about M2 or M3. I do care about:
1) will Apple just stop it with pushing custom ports (i.e., will the new iMac give up Thunderbolt?)
2) replace that damn mouse with something that makes more sense.
3) configure the base with more than 8GB of RAM.
4) make sure it will last at least 10 years (which iMacs in the past easily have done, mine is now 16 years old.)
5) keep the price low enough to be something families buy for the home.
Nice to haves:
6) update screen refresh rates to above 60Hz. Current resolution is fine.
7) side USB port(s).
The MBA line was already updated this year, as others have noted, and were introduced before the school year cycle.
The other "rumor" put out today is a new iPad Air model this fall. That might be a trial run to the total revamp of the iPad line next year. How the iPad products affect MBA sales I do not know, but I supposed there is a small overlap in the portable device demand. Something that does not exist with the home AIO market for a desktop computer.
The M2 Pro won't fit in the current iMac chassis. The "iPad on a stick" enclosure paints them into a corner. (they shoveled Ethernet off to the power brick because it is so thin. The headphone jack to the side. Ditto. ). It doesn't seem likely that they'll do a 180 on the case design. Yeah the MBP 14/16 got a little bit thicker. The new iPhones are a little bit thicker. So Apple may be past the anorexic disorder mode they were in for a long while, but they are not backtracking a lot. And the iMac would need "a lot" to get the Pro version in there.
The Mini never changed from the Intel dimensions so was 'half empty' with the plain M1/2 offering in it. There was plenty of room for a Mn Pro SoC ( if squeezed it in there. The 'Pro' taps out the Mini chassis coverage. ) . Don't paint yourself into a corner , and you have options.
Fans aren't the problem. The current iMac 24" has TWO (smaller) fans.
The constraint that paints them into a corner is that the primary logic board HAS TO fit inside the relatively thin 'chin'. (along with the two fans and two speakers. ). There is only a very small and very limited I/O board that overlaps in depth with the screen. The whole area behind the screen is soooooooooo thin that can't get much back there. The whole system to too thin for the depth of a standard Ethernet jack. ( or headphone ... that is why it is off the side. ) .
Being shaped like a giant iPad Pro is a major 'feature' / objective sought after by Apple.
To do a 'Pro' with the same baseline 'almost nothing behind the screen' set up they would need a bigger 'chin'. There is already factions that moan and groan about the thin 'chin' that is there now. Bigger would have its own issues.
A curved back to allow layering with two fans, vents , and speakers would not be hard. However, those would be very different constraints. [ The iMac 24" weights 9.88 lbs ( 4.48 kg) versus 2019 iMac 23.1" 12.1 lbs ( 5.48 kg). More metal and more shipping/inventory overhead. ]
USB-C and Thunderbolt protocols are part of the USB4 standard. It isn't 'custom' / proprietary at all. It is far more a form factor (not slavishly beholden to legacy forms ) of being 'new' than 'custom'.
Technically getting the 'Thunderbolt' label , instead of USB 4, requires Intel approval, but there is no 'port' difference at all. "Thunderbolt' mainly means didn't 'cut corners' on the implementation and leave out stuff the USB standard declares 'optoinal' but is actually quite useful. ( it just costs more to do 'right'/'correctly'. )
besides periodic charging the problem with the mouse is? When used normally where is huge issue?
Willing to pay more? 16GB standard is likely just going to lead to higher base prices.
Apple's Vintage/Obsolete standard says "end of sale 5 to 7 years". Even 16 years ago (when had the exact same policy) Apple was not committed to 10 years.
The homes strapped for cash are likely getting the $599 Mini with $300 (or less) monitor.
Trying to keep it super affordable but crank the base RAM costs up ( 16GB) and the frequency up ( > 60Hz).
Given the self induced thinness constraint .... that is going to loose USB-A. Only thinner USB-C ports will make that 'cut'.
MBA really wasn't. Apple just added a MBA 15". The M2 MBA 13" is over a year old.
It isn't a 'trail run' ... it is just due. The iPad Pro gets access to the M2 earlier than Air. The M2 is incrementally cheaper ( since have sold lots by now) and can sop up some sags in demand of the remaining M2 other products. The iPad Pro will shift off to M3 at the higher price point. Incrementally drive down costs of M3 ..... Rinse and repeat. It is about using more affordable bill of materials for more affordable products but still labeling them as 'new'.
The overlaps is smaller and smaller the farther down the iPad line up you go. The iPad Pro and MBA have the same chip. So sales of either one drives up economies of scale on the RAM/SoC/support chips used in both (i.e., lowers costs for Apple). The iPad Air picks up some more. The rest really don't.
using the same case doesn't mean the supply chain is exactly the same. New LPDDR RAM could also come along with the M3 chips. WiFi/Bluetooth doesn't have to be the same. DisplayPort pass through doesn't have to be the same. (HDMI 2.1 ) . etc.
Homes strapped for cash are likely to buy a Windows AIO at half the cost of an iMac. A Windows AIO can be had for less than $600, complete.
When I say that the iMac must still be affordable, I am thinking of the middle income market in which Apple dominates. There is a difficult hurdle once one gets past about $1500 for a home device. Refrigerators, stoves, TVs, etc. are markets in which most of the offerings are below that level. Once the price of an object reaches around $3k (think 16GB 1TB Mac Mini + ASD) the cost is just too prohibitive for most families.
Today, to top off an iMac one will pay $2k (at the Apple store, new). That's already leaving behind at least half the households in the US, and an even larger share in many places around the globe.
When I appeal for the need of longevity, low pricing, etc. I am treating the computer as it should be: as an appliance, not a status symbol.
Apple is unlikely to release any new MacBook models with the M3 chip this year, according to information shared today by supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
"It seems that Apple will not launch new MacBook models (equipped with M3 series processors) before the end of this year," Kuo wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Earlier this year, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said an Apple event in October of this year could feature the first Macs with the M3 chip. He said Macs that were candidates for the M3 chip included the 13-inch MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and 24-inch iMac. Kuo only ruled out new MacBooks, so there is still potential for a new iMac this year.
The as-yet-unannounced M3 chip is widely expected to be fabricated with TSMC's 3nm process for significant performance and power efficiency improvements compared to the current 5nm-based M2 chip, which debuted in June 2022.
Article Link: Kuo: First MacBooks With M3 Chip Unlikely to Launch This Year
Darn, was hoping to finally find a suitable upgrade for an old 2015 MBA and a tricked out 2018 touchbar mbp. Was looking at the 13inch mba! but it can wait they both still work ok despite the mba 2015 being stuck on catalina
Now that the iPhone 15 launch is over—a massive yawn—I’m waiting to see if we’ll get anything else of genuine interest by the end of this year.