Gurman: Apple Already Working on 15-Inch MacBook Air With M3 Chip

[Longplays]

Delay the 15 inch MacBook Air for a week? You think that if they did that they could come out with M3? They put whatever processor design in the iPhone first then he gets down to the Mac. I don’t think October is in a week.

MBA 15, Mac Studio and Mac Pro were announced during WWDC 2023. It was released 6/13.

That's just a week's wait.

With the late 2012 iMac it was announced in 2012 and shipped in 2013. Then within 2013 its replacement was announced and shipped within the same rear

I don’t think it makes sense to say Apple did this a decade ago with Intel processors so this relates to what’s going on now. There’s not going to be a big enough jump between M2 and M3 for most users to say M2 has become unusable and I need to replace it. This isn’t going to be like the change from Intel to Apple Silicon where there was a significant difference in performance. I couldn’t imagine buying an Intel MacBook Air right before Apple Silicon came out.

I am speaking about spacing out refreshes.

For example M1 Ultra to M2 Ultra have a 15 month gap.

M1 to M2 has a 19.5 month gap.

Who'd be happy that their 2023 MBA 15" be refreshed within 6-9 months from now?

It's as big a duck move as what Apple did with the last redesign of the iMac 27" Intel. It is possible that Intel was at fault but hot dang couldnt Apple delay announcement of the 2012 iMac to Jan/Feb 2013 so they can deliver a week later?

 

[LV426]

What do you mean? Even with the Intel models they released updates on the processor every few years. It’s not going to make your existing M2 broken or not good. I’m definitely not buying it because my M2 is more powerful than I need and battery life is plenty.

In a few years' time, your existing M2 will be not good. As in not supported any longer. Apple will find a way of making it incompatible with a future macOS update.

 

[azentropy]

Is anyone else disappointed by the 15" battery life ? Had such high expectations to see it have the best battery out of the whole MacBook lineup

Couldn't they fit a larger battery in there ?

As others stated the trade off would be it would be heavier and thicker for what an hour or two maybe when it already has fantastic batter life. Also I would not be shocked if Apple undersold the battery life on it.

 

[russell_314]

I get the thinking that if you wait for the next new tech you'll be waiting forever but the M2 is "old". The first M2 product came out about a year ago.

I don't blame anyone, at this point, for waiting on M3 devices. The M2 is a great chip and I'm sure many people will be happy with it but I'm waiting for M3. I know that it'll soon be replaced by M4 but I want to at least maximise the time I have a "new" product.

Even if you have an M1 product you probably won't want to upgrade until M4 as long as it meets your needs. Buy the product that meets your needs and stop worrying about getting the latest new product.

While I am waiting for an M3 it's only because if I buy a Mac it'll be a secondary device as I have a powerful PC. I have no doubt that if I bought an M2 15" Air it would last me a long time but I can easily wait for an M3 refresh. If you need a laptop now then get an M2.

I wouldn’t say M2 is “old”. For what most people use a MacBook Air for even M1 is more than powerful enough. Of course, it does make sense to stay on top of the upgrade cycle if you’re buying new.

Also, there is a possibility that Apple is not going to upgrade their laptops on the same cycle meaning they won’t have the same processor. The whole Apple Silicon upgrade cycle is new, so we’ll see how this plays out. In my scenario say next year they come out with the M3 13” MacBook Air but don’t release the M3 15” MacBook Air till 2025. This would actually make sense if they were having problems with producing enough processors.

 

[Longplays]

Does anyone know if m3 chip guarantees dual monitor functionality? Or TBD?

TBD... Apple is likely segmenting multi monitor support as a "pro" feature.

 

[JPack]

I got crucified in another thread when I said I'm waiting for the M3 15MBA. People said, "why not just hold out for the M4 or M5 then?"

But people don't seen to get the big draw of the M3 is NOT just more power, but the main draw is a much more power-efficient chip, which can bring about an up to 25% battery life improvement over the M2 chip. This is because the M3 is a 3nm chip and the M2 is a 5nm. (M4 and M5 will also be 3nm, so the battery life improvement won't be as great as from M2 to M3).

M3 15MBA is the one to get.

Because it doesn’t work that way in real life. Did anyone see 30% better battery life when switching from 7nm A13 to 5nm A14?

No, because you don’t get performance AND power efficiency gains. You only get that 30% reduction (SoC only) if Apple keeps performance exactly the same as before. Plus, SoC is a relatively small contributor to overall system power consumption.

 

[HVDynamo]

I think some of these leakers like Gurman don’t actually have a source for some things. Of course Apple’s going to release an M3 version next year. Let me guess “according to a rumor” they’re also releasing an iPhone 15 in October.🤣

I bet Apple is already working on the M4 even and we will see that in a mac in the next 2 years.

 

[curnalpanic]

Of course they are. Or did you think the M2 was going to be the last?

 

[JPack]

Of course it's stating the obvious, though timing is going to be very interesting. The M3 will be coming in very late if it launches in June 2024 (a full 2 years between generations!) but if it launches in October-November then what does it go into? A new 13" Air only? M3 iMac plus M3 13" MacBook Pro? Spring 2024 might allow them to do a full refresh of the MBA lineup while being just long enough after WWDC 2023 not to annoy people buying the M2?

Really makes me wonder why they waited a whole year after the 13" debuted to launch this.

Mac sales haven’t been performing well this year and Apple likely saw that by late 2022. Who is buying M2 (or M3) when so many have already upgraded to M1?

The 15-inch model is likely a copy and paste of the 13-inch logic board. They fast tracked the project when Mac sales were starting to dip.

 

[ProfessionalFan]

Damn, my 15" M2 hasn't even arrived yet!

I obviously knew this was coming.

 

[russell_314]

In a few years' time, your existing M2 will be not good. As in not supported any longer. Apple will find a way of making it incompatible with a future macOS update.

Apple doesn’t find a way to make processors incompatible. That’s not how this works. Even the 2018 MacBook Air can run macOS Ventura with its slow dual core Intel processor.

They choose to support a product for a length of time. Usually this is five years of operating system updates from when they last sold the product.

At least this is how it’s been in the past to my knowledge, but who knows what Apple will do in the future. If I’m wrong on the support cycle calculation someone please correct me.

 

[Blue Nova]

This is an indication that a new M3 Mac Studio will be next.
I’m not sure how long the Mac Pro will be on the market, but the Mac Mini and Mac Studio will sell more, although no sight of an iMac? It’s more profitable for Apple not to have one - not talking about the 24” iMac-.
That means a much cheaper display would need to be sold along the mini and Studio Mac.

 

[Realityck]

Apple is already developing 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models with the M3 chip, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In his Power On newsletter today, Gurman said he expects the updated laptops to be released in 2024.

He's just parroting his same previous rumors again. All this will do is make people think buying a m3 based 15" is coming sooner. It never does.

 

[Adelphos33]

M1/M2/M3... The fact of the matter is that the M1 chip is still overkill for the average use case of a MacBook Air, or a base iMac. Buy when you need and use for several years.

 

[JPack]

Apple doesn’t find a way to make processors incompatible. That’s not how this works. Even the 2018 MacBook Air can run macOS Ventura with its slow dual core Intel processor.

They choose to support a product for a length of time. Usually this is five years of operating system updates from when they last sold the product.

At least this is how it’s been in the past to my knowledge, but who knows what Apple will do in the future. If I’m wrong on the support cycle calculation someone please correct me.

A previous analysis based on Intel Macs shows Apple removes support based on product launch date rather than date last sold. There is already an accessibility feature in macOS Sonoma that requires M1 Pro or newer.

 

[russell_314]

He's just parroting his same previous rumors again. All this will do is make people think buying a m3 based 15" is coming sooner. It never does.

I think he’s just guessing. Of course, Apple is working on an M3 MacBook Air and they’re working on an M3 MacBook Pro. It’s not like they just make these things in a week and they send them to production.

 

[JitteryJimmy]

Gurman reiterated that new iMac and 13-inch MacBook Pro models with the M3 chip are also in development.

Is this some kind of joke nothing-burger statement from Gurman?

Of course Apple has been working on the M3 and the devices that will use it. And shocker of shocker, they are very likely already planning for the M4.

Anyone who thinks Gurman's statement is surprising has no knowledge of product development.

 

[russell_314]

A previous analysis based on Intel Macs shows Apple removes support based on product launch date rather than date last sold.

That’s interesting. I will have to look that up. I was always under the impression that it was based on when they stop selling it but I’m sure there are exceptions.

There is already an accessibility feature in macOS Sonoma that requires M1 Pro or newer.

I was talking about just being able to install the latest operating system. As soon as Apple Silicon come out, there were features on the latest operating system’s that were only supported by Apple Silicon. There’s not a lot you can do about that if the hardware doesn’t support the specific feature. Apple probably tested it and saw that it wasn’t working correctly or maybe it didn’t work at all, so they disabled that particular feature. My iPad Air 4 is a good example of that. I have iPadOS 17 on it, but it doesn’t support all the features of even iPadOS 16.

 

[75Batt]

He's just parroting his same previous rumors again. All this will do is make people think buying a m3 based 15" is coming sooner. It never does.

Exactly. Like all those who thought the 15 inch air was coming January, then a March event, then april then ma y even thought there would be a press release weeks before WWDC.

 

[macduke]

I think there will be an M4 MacBook after that.

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[BanjoDudeAhoy]

I think some of these leakers like Gurman don’t actually have a source for some things. Of course Apple’s going to release an M3 version next year. Let me guess “according to a rumor” they’re also releasing an iPhone 15 in October.🤣

@russell_314 confirmed as a leaker. With that insight regarding iPhone 15, there’s no other way 😉

I was thinking the same thing, though.
It’s like saying “Apple might already be working on the successor to macOS Sonoma”. It’s just logic.

 

[darngooddesign]

I agree but keep the annual refresh to approx 12 months like the iPhones and not half year.

A year and a half seems more realistic.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

"Why would they release an M2 MBA if they're just going to release an M3 MBA next year?!?!"

Because schools. Apple wants to have a brand new MBA in stores during the summer so students could buy them before returning to classes in the fall. Students are a huge segment of the market for the MBA, and Apple is not going to skip a year of sales waiting for the next chip just because some people on MR are upset.

People here are obsessed with processors and memory bandwidth and one SSD or two, etc. Back-to-school shoppers are not. Look at the real world and real consumers.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

If a MBA 15" M3 were to come out by Q1 2024 it will piss off a lot of 2023 owners who bought a little over 6 months earlier.

This may be acceptable if Apple intends to shorten the refresh cycle of 19.5 months to 12 months with the M3.

iPhone chips have a 12 month refresh cycle that occurs every September for the last decade.

I don’t think that M3 processors will ship until after the M2 powered headset.
And even if they do, there is absolutely nothing stating that it has to come to the MacBook Air first.
The M1 came to the MacBook Air six months before the iMac, and the M2 came to the iPad Pro before the Mac mini. Period
There’s really no set schedule, if they want to bring it to the iMac or the iPad first, there’s nothing stopping them.
Not sure why people keep rushing this thing so much, the new 3 nm process is going to come to the iPhone first. Just like 5 nm, just like 7 nm. And it will probably remain an iPhone exclusive for quite a while.

 

[darkelipse04]

I wish I could make nearly 6 figures stating obvious/common sense things too.