Three Unreleased Mac Models Appear in Apple's Find My Configuration File

[coffeemilktea]

I guess these are all the new Macs Mark Gurman said weren't coming out?

 

[Realityck]

I guess these are all the new Macs Mark Gurman said weren't coming out?

It been suggested that his snitch might know most hardware rumors, but totally removed from MacOS goals as evident when he was asked about what does MacOS 14 provide, then that look of inadequacy. Too funny he was unprepared on that topic, but yet he can say things are not coming. We got 45 days to go, things change too.

 

[Ethosik]

It could also be that Gurman is just full of **** - he generally is and I do not understand why people listen to him - and we are getting Mac Pro and/or Mac Studio updates this year.

I sure hope so. I need to replace my last unit that has more than 128GB of RAM. If it doesn't come out soon, I need to migrate it to Windows platform.

 

[75Batt]

Contrary to articles suggesting the M3 isn't available yet, I don't believe it has anything to do with availability but more to do with a business decision to use up the M2's, which thus far has not in my opinion achieved the market share that Apple wanted. They did not help the situation with the Press picking up on the SSD speeds, even though for many users the difference was unnoticeable. However it was not a good advert to have performance in any way going backwards, and it was played heavily by competition and the media.

In general I've not been impressed with the M2 and have steered clear of new hardware, but that is because the first implementation on the 24in. iMac of the M1 was extraordinarily good.

Sure it may not have serviced the needs for those needing massive performance, but for a general machine it was astounding creating aspirations of major performance hikes with each M series chip, which with regards to the M2 didn't really happen.

So I believe it may have more to do with Apple utilising what they have as a business decision not because of any shortage of M3, which if introduced may effectively hit their own market leaving them with surplus stock as its noticeable that we seem to be getting weekly price reductions on Apple hardware via Amazon and similar retailers.

I don’t believe it’s anything to do with the M2 itself. The market is very challenging and even Apple can’t weather this. It’s best business case to keep those M3s for when some of the challenges clear in the market and demand jumps. Plus, the last earnings call spoke of difficult compare given massively successful launch of Apple sillicon 1st gen portables. The inital hype had died down regardless of the performance of M2.

 

[boak]

Apparently I got mixed up with early a chips that launched on iPad first but weren’t ’x’ variants. There were some x variants that came out at the same time as the regular ones tho

Yes they can come together but higher tier chips are very unlikely to launch before the base chips.

 

[rp2011]

The M2 chips are nowhere ready for a Mac Pro. When a Windows laptop with an RTX can render a blender file in seconds vs over six minutes with an M2 Max, you quickly realize these chips are best suited as really nice mid-range laptop chips and NOT high-end desktop chips.
I do not want to go against Gurman since he has connections in the industry, but I would guess these new machines are either iMacs or Mac Studios because those machines are dead in the water right now unless they are updated.
I feel Apple is nowhere ready to release a true desktop Mac in the Mac Pro category for at least another year, which is fine as they sell hardly any of them anyway. Not a big loss in any way shape or form other than for their ego.

 

[Realityck]

The M2 chips are nowhere ready for a Mac Pro. When a Windows laptop with an RTX can render a blender file in seconds vs over six minutes with an M2 Max, you quickly realize these chips are best suited as really nice mid-range laptop chips and NOT high-end desktop chips.
I do not want to go against Gurman since he has connections in the industry, but I would guess these new machines are either iMacs or Mac Studios.
I feel Apple is nowhere ready to release a true desktop Mac in the Mac Pro category for at least another year.

Look Mark Gurman (Bloomberg) is no different than John Archer (Forbes) except for the variance of topics. These are just press writers that just get tidbits and write articles about technology topics they are familiar with. They also appear on online shows on occasion. They do not have connections in the industry except for what people send them. Anybody in the industry knows not to trust them.

As far as M2 SoCs are nowhere ready, unless your Apple no one else would know.

That comment "nice mid-range laptop chips and NOT high-end desktop chips" seems to be targeting the energy saving of AS platform SoC's, ignoring they aren't designed specifically for one usage over the other. There will come a time where that difference is going to cost parts of the industry, just as it effected consumer TV technology and wasteful energy usage (Plasma).

Regarding blender files, things will get better, not saying they are acceptable yet, but at least you see Apple wrote a metal backend as shown in the article.

Blender update adds support for Metal GPU rendering on Mac | AppleInsider

A new version of 3D creation software Blender has introduced Metal GPU rendering for Mac devices equipped with Apple Silicon chips or AMD graphics cards.

appleinsider.com

 

[nibw]

It frustrating to see Apple continue make a mess of new rollouts and sadly they ruined the Mac Pro some time ago.
The M chips are gold for them and could easily make many other comparable machines obsolete. Yet the releases are far too staggered, delayed and unclear. They started this poor trend with the Mac Pro with limited and far delayed releases over a decade. From 2013 to 2019 they basically weaned the public off that machine. Think of bigger customers such as institutions which were all updating Mac Pros every few years. By letting the trash can sit in neglect, many moved on to other machines. Their solution was to put out a behemoth in 2019 that outpriced most institutions- further limiting the market for that machine. Now we get off again, on again promises for a machine that most cannot afford.
Having multiple computers with different chips also is confusing to most and again puts buyers in a cycle of endlessly waiting for an update as no one wants to buy chips that are slower. (Even if they are not the perception is M1 is old tech. M2 = better.

 

[SactoGuy18]

I still wonder is the 24" M2 iMac is just about ready for production. Given the type of cooling fans used on the M1 iMac, the iMac refresh could easily accommodate the M2 SoC with 24 GB of RAM with no issues.

 

[atonaldenim]

"9to5Mac has evidence that Mac14,8 listed in the Find My files is the Apple Silicon Mac Pro, codenamed J180."

Assuming that's true, I'd guess that Mac14,13 and Mac14,14 could either be M2 Mac Studios or M2 iMacs (same pattern of two consecutive model IDs). Might even make more sense for iMac to get updated to M2 before Mac Studio, given their habit of upgrading the more entry level consumer models first.

And why are the models listed in a strange order?
Mac14,3 - Mac mini M2
Mac14,12 - Mac mini M2 Pro
Mac14,14 - ?
Mac14,13 - ?
Mac14,8 - ?

It's not ordered numerically. Assuming Mac Pro is 14,8 at the bottom of the list, does that mean it's sorted by performance? If 14,13 and 14,14 were Mac Studios, the precedent would be ,13 would be M2 Max and ,14 would be M2 Ultra. Yet ,14 is listed before ,13, which would not be in order of performance.

That could be another indicator they are iMacs, which were numbered "out of order" in 2021 with ,1 being the 8-core GPU 4-port model and ,2 as the 7-core GPU 2-port base model. If they were numbered the same way this year then ,14 would be the cheaper binned model and ,13 would be the better model. So that would put the Find My list in a logical order by performance.

OR - maybe ,14 represents iMac moving to a single model ID, and ,13 represents Mac Studio moving to M2 Max only, saving the M2 Ultra for Mac Pro only?

We'll see...

Mac14,1 - X
Mac14,2 - 13" MBA M2
Mac14,3 - Mac mini M2
Mac14,4 - X
Mac14,5 - 14" MBP M2 Max
Mac14,6 - 16" MBP M2 Max
Mac14,7 - 13" MBP M2
Mac14,8 - ?
Mac14,9 - 14" MBP M2 Pro
Mac14,10 - 16" MBP M2 Pro
Mac14,11 - X
Mac14,12 - Mac mini M2 Pro
Mac14,13 - ?
Mac14,14 - ?
? = unreleased model referenced in code
X = not used yet

Older models
Mac13,1 - Mac Studio M1 Max
Mac13,2 - Mac Studio M1 Ultra
Macmini9,1 - Mac mini M1
MacPro7,1 - 2019 Mac Pro
iMac21,1 - 24" iMac M1 (4 ports)
iMac21,2 - 24" iMac M1 (2 ports)

 

[Chancha]

"9to5Mac has evidence that Mac14,8 listed in the Find My files is the Apple Silicon Mac Pro, codenamed J180."

Assuming that's true, I'd guess that Mac14,13 and Mac14,14 could either be M2 Mac Studios or M2 iMacs (same pattern of two consecutive model IDs). Might even make more sense for iMac to get updated to M2 before Mac Studio, given their habit of upgrading the more entry level consumer models first. We'll see...

Mac14,1 - X
Mac14,2 - 13" MBA M2
Mac14,3 - Mac mini M2
Mac14,4 - X
Mac14,5 - 14" MBP M2 Max
Mac14,6 - 16" MBP M2 Max
Mac14,7 - 13" MBP M2
Mac14,8 - ?
Mac14,9 - 14" MBP M2 Pro
Mac14,10 - 16" MBP M2 Pro
Mac14,11 - X
Mac14,12 - Mac mini M2 Pro
Mac14,13 - ?
Mac14,14 - ?
? = unreleased model referenced in code
X = not used yet

Older models
Mac13,1 - Mac Studio M1 Max
Mac13,2 - Mac Studio M1 Ultra
Macmini9,1 - Mac mini M1
MacPro7,1 - 2019 Mac Pro
iMac21,1 - 24" iMac M1 (4 ports)
iMac21,2 - 24" iMac M1 (2 ports)

14,13 and 14,14 are likely iMacs. The recent rumours suggest:
1) iMac production has been in validating process
2) originally planned to wait to use M3, but the M2 surplus forced Apple to throw M2 in to use up stock
3) Studio has been reported many times it will skip M2 gen to make way for Mac Pro

 

[TallManNY]

This is Apple finally updating the iMac line after 2 years so they have M2 chips like the Mac mini. And like the Mac mini, these new M2 iMacs will have slower SSDs

I don't think so. I'm going to guess that iMac is going to come with 16gb RAM and 512gb SSD as the base model. The 512gb SSD will be 2 x 256 SSD configuration and since that provides two channels, the SSD speeds will be very good (obviously still half of the 1TB configuration which has 4 x 256 configuration, so four channels, if we are just talking about benchmarks). The idea for this being that if the consumer is going to buy an iMac which will be relatively expensive because it will include a screen, keyboard and mouse/trackpad, then Apple will not sell a water downed product that will be RAM and storage constrained very quickly.

Much like the Pro machines which Apple will not sell with 8gb, Apple draws a line at which they won't ship with 8gb of RAM anymore.

 

[jimbobb24]

Contrary to articles suggesting the M3 isn't available yet, I don't believe it has anything to do with availability but more to do with a business decision to use up the M2's, which thus far has not in my opinion achieved the market share that Apple wanted. They did not help the situation with the Press picking up on the SSD speeds, even though for many users the difference was unnoticeable. However it was not a good advert to have performance in any way going backwards, and it was played heavily by competition and the media.

In general I've not been impressed with the M2 and have steered clear of new hardware, but that is because the first implementation on the 24in. iMac of the M1 was extraordinarily good.

Sure it may not have serviced the needs for those needing massive performance, but for a general machine it was astounding creating aspirations of major performance hikes with each M series chip, which with regards to the M2 didn't really happen.

So I believe it may have more to do with Apple utilising what they have as a business decision not because of any shortage of M3, which if introduced may effectively hit their own market leaving them with surplus stock as its noticeable that we seem to be getting weekly price reductions on Apple hardware via Amazon and similar retailers.

The M2 Air is amazing and selling like crazy. They just have not built that many computers with the air. Apples got everything mixed up with regards to production. They only released the Air, 2 pro models, and the mini.

 

[Serqetry]

its possible , but because they want to sell mac studio they wouldn’t leave it M1 based for a another year. That would look like the spruce goose of Macs. A M2 ultra not being able to fly by 2023.

Yeah, it's going to be the M2 Mac Studio. Gurman doesn't know anything, and he'll use his psychic powers to tell us a new M2 Mac Studio is coming right before WWDC... and then use his mind control powers to make everyone forget he was wrong before. Perfect track record secured!

 

[spaz8]

I hope the 14,8 is ASi the M2 Mac Pro, but others seems to speculate that the 14,13, 14,14 are the M2 Mac Air 13, and 15" models. And 13,x was M1.. and 14,x is M2..

 

[spatlese44]

I really want a Mac Mini with an M3, but that's probably not going to happen as that's been updated most recently. In order of release:

June 2022
Mac14,2 - 13" MBA M2
Mac14,7 - 13" MBP M2

January 2023
Mac14,3 - Mac mini M2
Mac14,12 - Mac mini M2 Pro
Mac14,9 - 14" MBP M2 Pro
Mac14,10 - 16" MBP M2 Pro
Mac14,5 - 14" MBP M2 Max
Mac14,6 - 16" MBP M2 Max

Mac14,8 - ?
Mac14,13 - ?
Mac14,14 - ?

Mac14,1 - X
Mac14,4 - X
Mac14,11 - X

? = unreleased model referenced in code
X = not used yet

I think MP and Studio make the most sense. Neither is particularly shy about thermal load as they are more pro machines. By similar reasoning, iMac can skip M2 and go for more power efficient M3. Possibly Mac Mini gets skipped in 2024 with M3 as it remains the low cost option. Either way, I think I'm going to spec out an M2 Mac Mini for now and think about upgrading to M3 when it comes, which for Mac Mini could be a while. Remember the New Mac Mini is Coming thread?

 

[Realityck]

I think MP and Studio make the most sense. Neither is particularly shy about thermal load as they are more pro machines. By similar reasoning, iMac can skip M2 and go for more power efficient M3.

Why do you think any M1 24" iMac user needs to be forced to the power efficient M3 for a update after 2 years? It doesn't run on batteries. Yes there is a lot of room in that chassis with two fans to make it work with M2 Pro easily. The metal back plate cools the SoC very quickly back to room temp after pushing the M1 for long periods. I see this logic only pursuing M3 again thinking it's an unrealistic miracle SoC, it won't be.

 

[lowkey]

I honestly don't understand the point of the Studio sometimes when you have something like a M2 Pro Mini, but that's just me.

The point of the Studio is the Ultra configuration with twice the number of cores as the Pro Mini. I too don’t see the point of the base model studio with the Pro chip.

 

[lowkey]

I really want a Mac Mini with an M3, but that's probably not going to happen as that's been updated most recently. In order of release:

June 2022
Mac14,2 - 13" MBA M2
Mac14,7 - 13" MBP M2

January 2023
Mac14,3 - Mac mini M2
Mac14,12 - Mac mini M2 Pro
Mac14,9 - 14" MBP M2 Pro
Mac14,10 - 16" MBP M2 Pro
Mac14,5 - 14" MBP M2 Max
Mac14,6 - 16" MBP M2 Max

Mac14,8 - ?
Mac14,13 - ?
Mac14,14 - ?

Mac14,1 - X
Mac14,4 - X
Mac14,11 - X

? = unreleased model referenced in code
X = not used yet

I think MP and Studio make the most sense. Neither is particularly shy about thermal load as they are more pro machines. By similar reasoning, iMac can skip M2 and go for more power efficient M3. Possibly Mac Mini gets skipped in 2024 with M3 as it remains the low cost option. Either way, I think I'm going to spec out an M2 Mac Mini for now and think about upgrading to M3 when it comes, which for Mac Mini could be a while. Remember the New Mac Mini is Coming thread?

Mac14,8 - 15” MBA M2
Mac14,13 - Mac Studio M2 Max
Mac14,14 - Mac Studio M2 Ultra

?

 

[displayator]

The point of the Studio is the Ultra configuration with twice the number of cores as the Pro Mini. I too don’t see the point of the base model studio with the Pro chip.

I think the proposition for the Max Studio now that the Mini Pro exists is GPU, external displays and ports, as well as sustained performance.

For examples le the M1 Max Studio is slightly faster than the 16” M1 Max in some synthetic benchmarks and as compared to a M2 Pro Mini, an M2 Max Studio could have more ram, and more GPU power. And support 2 more screens ( and you’d save ~1K on an equivalent MacBook Pro Max).

I know I would buy a Max Studio with maxed out RAM and GPU.
Then be sad when next year’s / fall’s M3 MacBook Air has faster single core benchmarks.

 

[atonaldenim]

"9to5Mac has evidence that Mac14,8 listed in the Find My files is the Apple Silicon Mac Pro, codenamed J180."

If new Mac Pro is indeed Mac14,8 then I’d get a little chuckle out of the MacPro7,1 being succeeded by the Mac14,8.

Love that the fellow Mac Pro loving nerds inside Apple managed to get an 8 to follow the 7, but even better that 14,8 / 7,1 has to be some kind of numerology gold mine. This portends a good year for the Pro, I sense…

😂😭

 

[Motorola68000]

My opinion stands, where I believe its business decision to utilise M2 inventory in any way they can and that the M3 is ready to go but this is about using up amount m2 inventory they didn't expect to have.

We know Apple are always first in line buying up chips from TSMC and in case of m3 buying up the whole of the first run

Wonder if there will be a lot of M2 Ultra implementations, or another superlative used for other use of multiple M2's.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

It frustrating to see Apple continue make a mess of new rollouts and sadly they ruined the Mac Pro some time ago.
The M chips are gold for them and could easily make many other comparable machines obsolete. Yet the releases are far too staggered, delayed and unclear. They started this poor trend with the Mac Pro with limited and far delayed releases over a decade. From 2013 to 2019 they basically weaned the public off that machine. Think of bigger customers such as institutions which were all updating Mac Pros every few years. By letting the trash can sit in neglect, many moved on to other machines. Their solution was to put out a behemoth in 2019 that outpriced most institutions- further limiting the market for that machine. Now we get off again, on again promises for a machine that most cannot afford.
Having multiple computers with different chips also is confusing to most and again puts buyers in a cycle of endlessly waiting for an update as no one wants to buy chips that are slower. (Even if they are not the perception is M1 is old tech. M2 = better.

Agree.

 

[ErneX]

I honestly don't understand the point of the Studio sometimes when you have something like a M2 Pro Mini, but that's just me.

In my case I’d like to get a desktop Mac with more than 32GB of RAM. The Mini tops out at that, while the Studio allows more.

I’m sure there are many like me waiting for the Studios to get newer processors.

 

[Realityck]

I’m sure there are many like me waiting for the Studios to get newer processors

For sure, why would you buy a M1 Max Studio Mac right now? When in a few weeks it might be selling with M2 Max? Early May should be when MacOS 13.4 gets released.