I expect a preview of more powerful Macs at WWDC. Released "later in the year" and shipped in volume next year.
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Odds for a ”pro” bigger iMac at WWDC?
- Thread starter Pelinwin
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people keep ******** on Apple for diluting the term “pro” to just mean more expensive.
I’ll agree that the lines have been blurred a lot at the laptop level in the last few years.
Apple had a literal iMac Pro, and they discontinued it. The next iMac might work for a lot of “professional” settings but that doesn’t mean it’s a “pro iMac”.
what you’re waiting for is the bigger iMac.
No because the 24” iMac is not a pro machine, so if they announced a pro 32” iMac it would serve a totally different market. The new iMac is clearly a fun family-friendly iMac made for average consumers. Professionals who actually need power (video, animation, cad, photoshop, audio) usually don’t get the small iMac: they get an iMac Pro, or the 27” iMac, or a Mac Pro.
I think it’s totally okay for Apple to announce a consumer family friendly iMac, and then a few months later announce a professional iMac.
Whoa, chill out. I think that's just not true, you could be very productive with the new 24". Look at the benchmarks of the M1 Mac mini. I doubt everyone here saying "it's not powerful enough" are actually in need of more power. I think it's more about expactations, expecting more power and something new - rather than a new iMac not capable of fitting most professionals as well. Just like cameras, the computer is these days rarely setting the bar unless you're doing 3D, advanced video etc.
I could buy a Tesla now and be happy and it'd be fulfilling my needs - but I'd still follow if they were to release a new model in a few weeks time.
So please, don't call people dumb, it's rude.
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We haven’t seen how constrained supply of the new iMac or iPad Pro will be yet though…
You are way over selling the capabilities of this chip. It's really good at single core functions though. Future generations will probably be really good at multi core once they push the numbers higher.
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There’s a slight chance Apple could introduce the next M chip at WWDC, but I doubt we’ll see Macs with these chips until the Fall (October/November).
Correct but Apple stated that both products will be available mid May. They wouldn't make such a claim if they were constrained because they know millions of customers will be buying vs. a couple of hundred. Also by allowing a preorder at the end of this month and shipping begins mid May that gives them time to fulfill orders just in case there may be a constrain.
Also the GPU is about the same as a NVIDIA GTX 1050, which is still #2 or #3 on the steam hardware survey. So it does well in gaming too.
Odds are good for "an announcement".
Maybe they'll even have a prototype to display.
Not sure if the larger iMac will be ready to ship by that time, however.
Might be several weeks longer.
Although... I wasn't expecting the 24" iMac until WWDC as well -- obviously it was "ready earlier", and they didn't "hold it back"...
Maybe they'll even have a prototype to display.
Not sure if the larger iMac will be ready to ship by that time, however.
Might be several weeks longer.
Although... I wasn't expecting the 24" iMac until WWDC as well -- obviously it was "ready earlier", and they didn't "hold it back"...
I think it depends on if it will be yet another M1, or derivative thereof, and it is ready to go. If so, then sure.
However, if it is based on the A15, and Apple wants to show off the iPhone 12S first, then no.
However, if it is based on the A15, and Apple wants to show off the iPhone 12S first, then no.
I think right now we’re in a weird spot, because Apple’s chips are so much better than Intel. The M1 is really a low-level consumer oriented baseline chip, but even so it’s still VERY powerful. So it’s lead to a lot of confusion in the Mac community because even the MacBook Air can compete with products like the 16” MacBook Pro.
So now we have Mac users who traditionally would have bought a higher-end Mac are now buying M1 models and they forget that higher-end macs are still coming. Sure they may get upset, but that’s honestly on the consumer. If you normally bought a 15”/16” MacBook Pro or a 27” iMac and for whatever reason downgraded to an M1 Mac (downgrade meaning product category not on performance - I know the M1 is powerful) that’s on the consumer. We all know higher end macs are coming that will have more features. That’s no secret.
So no I don’t think it’s wrong for Apple to announce higher spec macs soon after they announce lower spec macs. If anything it would clear up any confusion sooner rather than later and power users would stop complaining about how M1 macs don’t have all the features they wanted...
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If they're going to release an M1 variant with more cores they'd better do it soon, or they risk the cores quickly being trumped by the M2 when that (presumably) releases in October/November.
M1X at WWDC would put the X-variant roughly halfway through a one-year cycle of the chip, which would make sense to me.
M1X at WWDC would put the X-variant roughly halfway through a one-year cycle of the chip, which would make sense to me.
Great analysis and I see your point, and have to say I agree. You’re right
my only reason for reasoning about this is that I’m eager to get myself a new desktop setup. My only nightmare would be if I wait until fall and then November and then suddenly no new more powerful iMac was actually released 2021. That would suck
This is certainly plausible, and does make sense.
My prediction:
- New iPhones with A15 in September, perhaps a tease of something Mac-related
- 5.5K iMac (Pro?) 30" and MacBook Pro 14"/16" with M2X (based on A15, of course) in October
- MacBook Air and Mac mini are bumped to M2 next year
I can see why Apple would want to release new hardware at WWDC, and new laptops would be the obvious choice. Would they release these without releasing the iPhones first? Possibly. The A14 was introduced with the iPad Air in September last year, and the iPhone wasn't presented until a month later, so it is not unprecedented.
I'm not convinced that there is going to be a larger iMac.
I could see Apple selling only 3 desktops: 1) mini (M1); 2) iMac 24" (M1); 3) Mac Pro (Future M chip).
Further, I can easily see them getting rid of the mini (especially if the new Mac Pro is small/modular), and then only selling 2 desktops.
I think it is crazy to assume that there will ever be a bigger iMac at all.
The iMac 24 is just too good for so many people.
I could see Apple selling only 3 desktops: 1) mini (M1); 2) iMac 24" (M1); 3) Mac Pro (Future M chip).
Further, I can easily see them getting rid of the mini (especially if the new Mac Pro is small/modular), and then only selling 2 desktops.
I think it is crazy to assume that there will ever be a bigger iMac at all.
The iMac 24 is just too good for so many people.
I will bet you $100 that there will be an AS-based iMac with a screen that is bigger than 24" available by the end of 2022.
I mean, I've called the existing M1 Macs gimped as much as the next guy, but even I think it's unlikely they'd just completely drop the 'bigger' iMac.
I'm also not sure why they'd drop the mini. They might revert the mini to a real entry-level only machine (i.e. no direct replacement for a i7/64GB Intel mini) and try to push those customers to a future "Pro" Mac desktop - which, as long as it's not gimped on I/O like the current M1s are, would be fine for most high-end mini users I suspect.
More surprising to me is that the MBA and MBP13/2ports both exist as M1 products. You'd think if they were going to converge product lines, and seeing what they shipped - those two would have been the perfect candidate to just replace one model for.
I wouldn't be surprised to see the two-port MBP hang around for a year or two, until there are M2/M2X revisions of the MBA and 14" MBP so that the previous generation can fill the budget slot for both, and then dropped entirely.
If the 16" goes the way the schematics imply it's gonna seem pretty odd if either the 14" 4-port keeps it's 4 tb3 ports. Conversely, if it too drops them, then what's the point of the 2-port version?
So yeah, wouldn't be surprised to see one of the 2-port 13" options not being a thing pretty soon.
There’s rumors that Apple has started mass production on their next M-series chip. Some are calling it M2, but it may just be an M1X (nobody knows what to call it). That being said chip production for the iPhone typically starts 3 months before release, but Apple sells way more iPhones than they do high-end MacBook Pro’s and high-end iMacs, so they may only need 2 months of lead time instead of 3 like with the iphone.
That would place final assembly around the middle of June. That means they could announce new macs at WWDC.
I would like to see a MacBook lineup like this:
13” / 15” MacBook Air (M1, M2, M3)
14” / 16” MacBook Pro (M1X, M2X, M3X)
What, like concurrent releases, where the CPU model is the big differentiator, or like iPhones - in 2022 the 2021 MBP becomes the 'cheaper' option for that family, and is manufactured at the previous years spec still?
I did mention offhand in another thread that if Apple adopted that approach (and was retroactive about it, and brought back a 2015-spec MBP but with arm CPU) they could keep their grubby mits of our TB3/USB4 ports and the whiners could buy the old model. I still hold a sliver of hope that the 2 vs 4 port and eth/no eth situation on the iMac might mean that the gimped MBP16 with HDMI and SD instead of TB3 is just a different config, and that there is a model with (ideally) say 6 TB3 ports coming too.
However I'm realistic enough to also understand thats quite unlikely.
I’d imagine both the Air and Pro lines would get updated every year. Both using the same generation of chip design. The difference between the air and pro would be: higher core counts, better multi-thread sustained performance, better GPU, XDR screens, more ports, more ram capacity, more storage capacity, more external displays.
If they were to put an older chip design in a Mac, I would prefer that to be called maybe a MacBook SE or something. So it’s the cheapest options using and older design. I could see the current MacBook Air design sort of filling that spot in a few years after they update the air to a newer design. Maybe they could sell it for $799 or something. Who knows.
IMO the biggest issue right now is how they have a 2-port and a 4-port version of the 13” MBP. It’s confusing to some people because the 2-port version is also less powerful (I know right now it’s not because of M1 but traditionally it’s the lesser of the 13” models). It’s not clear by the name. If they just got rid of that, and had two air’s instead I feel it would eliminate the confusion.
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