Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
"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.
Just to add... MR users with a cow with 8GB memory & 256GB storage aren't the key mass market demo for this.

It's back-to-school students who are.

And not those obessed with RTX 4090 and i9 benchmarks.
 
This is what I'll ultimately pick up for my parents. Can't justify the modest gains from the M2 chip right now.

I'm crossing my fingers that they might finally bump base ram to 16gb OR the SSD to 512gb to keep overall costs down. It's so brutal paying +$400 for what should be baseline specs or +$600 to get 16gb/1TB.
 
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.

What exactly would consumers do if Apple “pisses off” owners by launching Q1’24? Stomp their feet, switch to Intel/Windows, and swear never buy Mac again? If it’s a shorter cycle with the 15-inch model this time, so be it. Revenues for Apple matter more in the near term.
 
  • Love
Reactions: orbital~debris
Now common sense can be decorated as rumours.
The 15" MBA is actually a stopgap for the 15" iPad Pro. So there's not gonna be another one of those. Just like the Mac Studio, a device with a completely different form factor and price point, was obviously a stop gap for the Mac Pro and would go away once a new Mac Pro was announced! Also, the iPhone will be cancelled this year as it does not meet sales expectations anymore.
 
Last edited:
@russell_314 confirmed as a leaker.
Now I’m in trouble! I remember their last leaker posting something on Twitter about how he was sorry he got his sister in trouble, and he was in so much trouble. I kind of felt bad for him🤦‍♂️🤣

Apple if you’re listening, I’m really cheap. Send me a maxed out 24” iMac in blue 🤤 and I promise to never make any more “predictions” 🤣
 
The 15" MBA is actually a stopgap for the 15" iPad Pro. So there's not gonna be another one of those. Just like the Mac Studio, a device with a completely different form factor and price point, was obviously a stop gap for the Mac Pro and would go away once a new Mac Pro was announced!
The Studio isn't going away because it provides price points between the Mini and the Pro, and Apple loves filling price gaps.
 
  • Like
Reactions: russell_314
The 15" MBA is actually a stopgap for the 15" iPad Pro. So there's not gonna be another one of those. Just like the Mac Studio, a device with a completely different form factor and price point, was obviously a stop gap for the Mac Pro and would go away once a new Mac Pro was announced!
So why'd they just release a new Mac Studio alongside the Mac Pro?
 
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.
It is likely Apple will use the M3 in the Visual Pro as a free upgrade. This would improve the reported 2hr batter life.

They could not announce it at WWDC 2023 to avoid the Osborne Effect.

The 1st Macs to get the M1 and M2 chips first was the MBA & MBP 13".

MBA is. that. important.

iMac, sadly, is not that important. It is likely a tad more important as Mac Pro Intel.

3nm will come this way assuming 19.5 month refresh cycle of the M chips are maintained

- iPhone: Sep 2023
- M3: Q1 2024
- M3 Pro/Max: between these 2 quarters
- M3 Ultra: Q1 2025
 
It is likely Apple will use the M3 in the Visual Pro as a free upgrade. This would improve the reported 2hr batter life.

They could not announce it at WWDC 2023 to avoid the Osborne Effect.

The 1st Macs to get the M1 and M2 chips first was the MBA & MBP 13".

MBA is. that. important.

iMac, sadly, is not that important. It is likely a tad more important as Mac Pro Intel.

3nm will come this way assuming 19.5 month refresh cycle of the M chips are maintained

- iPhone: Sep 2023
- M3: Q1 2024
- M3 Pro/Max: between these 2 quarters
- M3 Ultra: Q1 2025
Absolutely love the optimism, but Do you know anything about Apple?
Is Apple even close to the kind of company that will say “hey, we know we’ve announced we’re using a chip, but you’re gonna get a free new one instead”?
No, they are absolutely not. If they didn’t intend to use the M2 with the Apple vision Pro, they wouldn’t have announced the chip at all.
Notice that they didn't announce the ram, or the storage, or the refresh rate, or any such thing like that? Yeah, they could've left the processor out too if it was something that hadn't been introduced before.
But they didn't. They said it would come with M2, so it will come with M2. Not sure why there's any reason to doubt that.
Especially since mass production of this product is more than likely so difficult that it's not starting in 2024. It's probably starting now, or within the next couple months, probably before any M3 products are even finished.
 
  • Love
  • Like
Reactions: smulji and JPack
Absolutely love the optimism, but Do you know anything about Apple?
Is Apple even close to the kind of company that will say “hey, we know we’ve announced we’re using a chip, but you’re gonna get a free new one instead”?
No, they are absolutely not. If they didn’t intend to use the M2 with the Apple vision Pro, they wouldn’t have announced the chip at all.
Notice that they didn't announce the ram, or the storage, or the refresh rate, or any such thing like that? Yeah, they could've left the processor out too if it was something that hadn't been introduced before.
But they didn't. They said it would come with M2, so it will come with M2. Not sure why there's any reason to doubt that.
Especially since mass production of this product is more than likely so difficult that it's not starting in 2024. It's probably starting now, or within the next couple months, probably before any M3 products are even finished.
Back in 2006 Steve bumped up the Intel chip that came in the 1st Intel Mac at no charge.

A few years later Apple did a silent Intel chip bump for their Mac mini. They did not disclose this publicly to avoid Osbourne Effect of lower spec'd minis.

Both were likely done due due to parts availability.

Mentioning the M2 also gives the devs what chip they'd work with and buyers of the MBA 15" that their Mac isn't obsolete in 6-9 months.
 
Ughhhh! What was the point of releasing MacBook Air in M2 last week then 😑.

I’m really hoping with an M3 Chip, Apple can push out 24 hours of battery life on a single charge.
Do you really use a MacBook for 24 straight hours? How often? Not ever around an AC outlet during that time?

Trying to understand this obsession people have with extraordinarily long battery life when, well, no one really uses a computer that long. And if you're not around power, what are you to do on the 25th hour?
 
  • Like
Reactions: mvdrl
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.

It is going to be late because they are using all of TMSC's 3nm capacity for the iPhone so they'll not want to impact their supply their initially. M3 will come after the initial rush of iPhone demand so yes it is going to be later than I think Apple initially wanted. If they want it to be 3nm they don't have much choice but to wait.
 
Really? You mean the Team that completed the M2, Max, Pro and Ultra were NOT just sitting around doing nothing on Apple's payroll after finishing those?

Who would have thought it!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jumpthesnark
It is likely Apple will use the M3 in the Visual Pro as a free upgrade. This would improve the reported 2hr batter life.

They could not announce it at WWDC 2023 to avoid the Osborne Effect.

The 1st Macs to get the M1 and M2 chips first was the MBA & MBP 13".

MBA is. that. important.

iMac, sadly, is not that important. It is likely a tad more important as Mac Pro Intel.

3nm will come this way assuming 19.5 month refresh cycle of the M chips are maintained

- iPhone: Sep 2023
- M3: Q1 2024
- M3 Pro/Max: between these 2 quarters
- M3 Ultra: Q1 2025

I would be very surprised Apple upgrades the SOC on the Vision Pro before release. I imagine that using an older M2 chip for a product coming out in early FY24 was intentional. They had to use very expensive components elsewhere to accomplish their goals. So they are likely using the minimal viable SOC to accomplish the fit and finish they expect from the product.

I suspect that the first several hardware revisions will be dramatic leaps in performance. Hell, the die shrink from M2 to M3 will almost certainly lead to massive performance per watt gains that could be spent on battery life increase.
 
I would be very surprised Apple upgrades the SOC on the Vision Pro before release. I imagine that using an older M2 chip for a product coming out in early FY24 was intentional. They had to use very expensive components elsewhere to accomplish their goals. So they are likely using the minimal viable SOC to accomplish the fit and finish they expect from the product.

I suspect that the first several hardware revisions will be dramatic leaps in performance. Hell, the die shrink from M2 to M3 will almost certainly lead to massive performance per watt gains that could be spent on battery life increase.

2hrs battery life acceptable in 2023 much less 2024, really?
 
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 ?

MBP 13" 3.0 lbs ( 1.4 kg ) 17 hrs wireless web
MBA 15" 3.2 lbs ( 1.51 kg ) 15 hrs wireless web ( same 15hrs for MBA 13 M2)
MBP 14" 3.5 lbs ( 1.6 kg ) 11 hrs wireless web

Extremely likely, there is a weight limit. Likely a cost limit also. It is an 'Air' it is suppose to limbo under the weight of the 14" laptop or how 'air-ish' is it? It is over the MPB 13" but that model has old legacy features from 4-5 years ago ( TouchBar , old camera , no MagSafe , etc. ). For the 0.2 lbs lots of folks are going say 'it doesn't matter'.

If touchbar fans keep buying the mBP 13" is significant numbers it will stay around. If Apple threw a M3 in it in 2024 pretty good chance it gets just enough buyers to keep it around. I think Apple wants the MBA 15" to kill off the MBP 13" in popullarity but until it ships those kind of numbers ... the MBP 13" will survive another day. But that 'take out' the MBP 13" is going to put a tight cost limit on the MBA 15" . ( more battery , more aluminum is going to cost more. )

And if Battery matters more the screen space , camera, etc. ... they've got a model MBP 13" . Going to be hard pressed to top the MBP 13" on battery life when have a bigger screen (that sucks up battery capacity). Too much battery and aluminum and it isn't an 'Air'.

Apple traded-off just enough weight additions to get the MBA 15" back to same 'wireless web' time as the MBA 13" and stopped.


P.S. Additionally, the MBA 15" wireless web time is 4 hours longer than the MBP 14". For some 'larger screen' + 'longest battery life' fans, that is going to be a 'win'.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Falhófnir
Absolutely love the optimism, but Do you know anything about Apple?
Is Apple even close to the kind of company that will say “hey, we know we’ve announced we’re using a chip, but you’re gonna get a free new one instead”?
No, they are absolutely not. If they didn’t intend to use the M2 with the Apple vision Pro, they wouldn’t have announced the chip at all.
Notice that they didn't announce the ram, or the storage, or the refresh rate, or any such thing like that? Yeah, they could've left the processor out too if it was something that hadn't been introduced before.
But they didn't. They said it would come with M2, so it will come with M2. Not sure why there's any reason to doubt that.
Especially since mass production of this product is more than likely so difficult that it's not starting in 2024. It's probably starting now, or within the next couple months, probably before any M3 products are even finished.

Not to mention, how do we even know M3 will improve battery life by an appreciable amount? Could it be the 12 cameras, 3 OLED displays, and 5 sensors that are using most of the power? What about R1? Would they leave it at 5nm?

Apple would rather pull in the “early 2024” date and get it out to customers earlier rather than drag it out just for M3.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Lounge vibes 05
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.