M2/M3 iMac speculation thread

[mectojic]

A thread purely for future iMac speculation.

Speculation topics:

1) M2 or M3? I strongly think it will be M2. The M3 won't come until mid-late 2024. Apple will put M2 in the iPad Air and iMac first. The iMac is the consumer machine, so I highly doubt it will be a debut for the M3.

2) Design – the MacOS Sonoma preview publicity has consistently shown three Macs – the M2 Air, the M2 Pro, and a silver M1 iMac. I'm 100% confident the next-gen iMac will have no redesign.

3) Colour – As the Sonoma preview showed a silver iMac, I'm sure we'll get that again. As for the other colours, I would love the new iMac to have new colours – Starlight? – but am not sure. The 7-colour scheme seemed like quite an ambitious gamble, and now that Apple has sales data, they might want to reduce or reshape the lineup. I doubt the iMac sold as well as they wanted it to, we're effectively in a portables market at this stage anyway. Since the recent M2 15" Air comes in starlight and midnight, we may get that on the new iMac, but who knows?

4) Size – some speculations about a larger iMac joining the lineup? 30-inch iMac? Dare I say, 30-inch iMac Pro with M2 Pro/Max? With the release of the 15-inch Air, maybe Apple has prepared a larger iMac too.

5) Other features – we would have to expect a USB-C magic keyboard/mouse, sooner or later. Would Apple consider redesigning the Magic Mouse while they're at it? I doubt it.

 

[mectojic]

Another note on colour: based on the Amazon sales data, it seems that Yellow, Orange and Purple really didn't sell very well. Apple might drop those colours...

Except, if they drop those colours, it just draws attention to the problem. So I think Apple might prefer to just cut all the current colours and change to Silver, Starlight, Midnight and Space Grey... who knows?

 

[Huginnmuninn]

based on the Amazon sales data

Sales charts on amazon.com are daily lists. Sites like JungleScout and AMZScout estimate monthy sales but aren't necessarily precise. So I doubt whatever data you're looking at is an authoritative, accurate quarterly or yearly representation of actual sales of items by color.

 

[mectojic]

Sales charts on amazon.com are daily lists. Sites like JungleScout and AMZScout estimate monthy sales but aren't necessarily precise. So I doubt whatever data you're looking at is an authoritative, accurate quarterly or yearly representation of actual sales of items by color.

Interesting, ok. Yeah I can't really trust Amazon either because they don't seem to have much stock of the rarer colours.

 

[JanetTheGreat]

Any speculation as to the prices of the M2 Imacs?

 

[Adelphos33]

I believe you posted a similar thread a couple of weeks ago, but I disagree with most of this speculation. I think Apple does a pure speedbump update to the iMac, adding the M3 in October/November. The design / colors / options (i.e. lightning keyboard/trackpad) will be identical to the M1 iMac.

 

[kagharaht]

Since my iMac is Late 2013. Whatever comes out as iMac M2 I'll buy ASAP. This old iMac now can't even keep WiFi connected. Randomly shutdowns if I keep it in sleep mode. Loses its keychain passwords and Safari bookmarks "synching" feature with other Mac in Ventura or Monterey. iTunes and TV can't even search its own library. It's time to update due to Software failures with Catalina. I'm sure website will soon fail and I'll have to use Firefox or Chrome.

 

[Yebubbleman]

A thread purely for future iMac speculation.

Speculation topics:

1) M2 or M3? I strongly think it will be M2. The M3 won't come until mid-late 2024. Apple will put M2 in the iPad Air and iMac first. The iMac is the consumer machine, so I highly doubt it will be a debut for the M3.

I think that unless an M2 iMac materializes by October, it's not happening until M3. The iMac currently is the oddball in the desktop lineup and Apple has already shown that it can skip generations on things and be just fine. I do believe we'll see an M3 version. But an M2 version beforehand? That's debatable. Though, its value proposition is worse than ever at the prices it currently sells at.

2) Design – the MacOS Sonoma preview publicity has consistently shown three Macs – the M2 Air, the M2 Pro, and a silver M1 iMac. I'm 100% confident the next-gen iMac will have no redesign.

Apple will showcase a design up to the minute the next one is announced. Even in their keynotes, they'll show the earlier design until the moment whomever comes on stage/camera to announce a new design. I do agree that they won't be redesigning it this soon, but Apple's marketing is not the metric to go by here.

3) Colour – As the Sonoma preview showed a silver iMac, I'm sure we'll get that again. As for the other colours, I would love the new iMac to have new colours – Starlight? – but am not sure. The 7-colour scheme seemed like quite an ambitious gamble, and now that Apple has sales data, they might want to reduce or reshape the lineup. I doubt the iMac sold as well as they wanted it to, we're effectively in a portables market at this stage anyway. Since the recent M2 15" Air comes in starlight and midnight, we may get that on the new iMac, but who knows?

If the 2021 iMacs were a reset to 1999's era of colors, then it's totally possible that we'll get new colors added or removed from the mix!

4) Size – some speculations about a larger iMac joining the lineup? 30-inch iMac? Dare I say, 30-inch iMac Pro with M2 Pro/Max? With the release of the 15-inch Air, maybe Apple has prepared a larger iMac too.

I don't know about the larger size. I know that a lot of 27-inch iMac fans are regularly hopeful of this, but Apple really did release the Mac Studio to replace the 27-inch iMac and allowed the Studio Display to be paired with something as entry level as a base model Mac mini all the way to the highest end Mac Pro. It not being an all-in-one really just means that the vast majority of I/O connections are to an adjacent box rather than it being all in one giant disposable monitor that's only good with the computer it's a part of. This is an improvement and I think that, largely Apple and those that really needed a 27-inch iMac for performance are happy about it.

5) Other features – we would have to expect a USB-C magic keyboard/mouse, sooner or later. Would Apple consider redesigning the Magic Mouse while they're at it? I doubt it.

The vertical charging port is the least of what makes the Magic Mouse a lousy input device. Hopefully they make something more ergonomic to replace it!

 

[mectojic]

I think that unless an M2 iMac materializes by October, it's not happening until M3. The iMac currently is the oddball in the desktop lineup and Apple has already shown that it can skip generations on things and be just fine. I do believe we'll see an M3 version. But an M2 version beforehand? That's debatable. Though, its value proposition is worse than ever at the prices it currently sells at.

Fair call. I didn't think Apple would ever skip generations, and I still believe that. The M2 Mac Pro was an exception, but that's purely because M1 didn't have the ProRAW decoders that the 2019 Mac Pro MPX had, so from Apple's perspective, that would've been an embarrassing downgrade. They waited for M2 just for the Mac Pro – every other device has been M1, then M2 (except obviously the Vision Pro).
I do think Apple's playing it slow now – they're so ahead of the competition right now, there's no need to rush out an M3, especially with the potential embarrassment of chip shortages. We may even get an M2 iMac in early 2024, then M3 is announced in late 2024, and then the iMac gets the spec bump to M3 in early-mid 2025. That seems like a decent timeline to me.
I do agree the pricing could be a bit lower though.

This is an improvement and I think that, largely Apple and those that really needed a 27-inch iMac for performance are happy about it.

Yeah partly, but there's been some vocal disagreement on Macrumors from people who really wanted a 27-inch iMac. I'm not in that camp, but I understand the appeal of an all-in-one, even at that size.

The vertical charging port is the least of what makes the Magic Mouse a lousy input device. Hopefully they make something more ergonomic to replace it!

Yeah would be nice. Apple releases new mice less frequently than global pandemics. When they do, they'll want it to be completely uniform across their platform. Since USB-C is coming eventually, it'll probably arrive in the next year or two, and maybe, just maybe the new mouse will come with a redesign.

 

[OneSon]

The longer this goes on it makes me glad I bit the bullet and just bought the silver M1 iMac before it got the UK price increase. It's been absolutely brilliant for our family. I'll not upgrade it again for at least another 4-5 years.

 

[Adelphos33]

The longer this goes on it makes me glad I bit the bullet and just bought the silver M1 iMac before it got the UK price increase. It's been absolutely brilliant for our family. I'll not upgrade it again for at least another 4-5 years.

M1 iMac is an excellent machine - a snappy as when I bought it a year ago, serving all of my needs. My most used Mac.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Fair call. I didn't think Apple would ever skip generations, and I still believe that.

They've done it with the iMac before. The 21.5-inch iMac never got newer than 8th Generation Intel; also never got 6th Generation Intel, while the 27-inch iMac never got 8th Generation Intel. From the standpoint of release years, both iMacs skipped 2016 and 2018, with only the 27-inch having a model in 2020. The iMacs have been skipping years and generations for a while now. Hell, Mac minis were skipped for four years in between 2014 and 2018. I'm frankly surprised that Apple even gave the Mac mini the M2, considering they generally aren't prompt on Mac mini releases either.

every other device has been M1, then M2 (except obviously the Vision Pro).

You're forgetting the iPad Air.

Yeah partly, but there's been some vocal disagreement on Macrumors from people who really wanted a 27-inch iMac. I'm not in that camp, but I understand the appeal of an all-in-one, even at that size.

The people upset at a lack of a 27-inch iMac were those that bought the lower-end models and solely for the large display size (so, think the base i5 model with a low end drive and low end graphics setup). Those people get shafted by the cost of the Studio display + any other Mac desktop. Otherwise, the cost of a base model Mac Studio and a Studio Display was comparable to that of an i7 iMac with decent graphics, 32GB of Apple Supplied RAM and a 512GB SSD and it scales accordingly from there.

That said, there are plenty of other decent 27-inch displays out there not made by Apple that would serve those users just fine.

 

[mectojic]

They've done it with the iMac before.

Yeah, in the Intel days. But Apple has much better control of the chips now and can release a much stabler lineup now. Intel's improvements just weren't worth the upgrades.

You're forgetting the iPad Air.

Is hasn't gotten M2 yet, but it's about to – so it hasn't 'skipped' a generation.

 

[Spock]

I think that is going to have another redesign, I think that is why they have not updated it in so long.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Yeah, in the Intel days. But Apple has much better control of the chips now and can release a much stabler lineup now. Intel's improvements just weren't worth the upgrades.

Intel vs. Apple Silicon doesn't matter here. If Apple wanted to release a new iMac in 2016 or 2018, they would've. But they didn't because that line doesn't need as frequent updates as the MacBooks all do.

Is hasn't gotten M2 yet, but it's about to – so it hasn't 'skipped' a generation.

While it's true that it hasn't yet skipped M2 (given that M3 hasn't come out yet), there were plenty of opportune times to release an M2 version and Apple instead chose not to. Similarly, coming out with an M2 model after there was already the bevy of higher-end M2 products would go counter to the order that they did things with M1 and be somewhat unlikely. So, it will most likely skip this generation. But, again, iMacs have been known to do that. Similarly, not every A-series based device gets every chip. The iPad mini skips chip generations all the time.

 

[picpicmac]

What about an iMac that includes the R1 chip?

Think about it: how has your interaction with a desktop computer changed over the past (5, 10, 20) years?

You likely still use a QWERTY keyboard and a mouse (of some sort, but I use a Trackman trackball instead.)

Wouldn't it be better to just wave a hand, or a finger, or look somewhere at the screen?

Why should we believe the R1 will be limited to the Apple Vision Pro? That is going to be a low volume product, compared to the rest of Apple's product lines. The cost of the R1 will not be paid for by just the AVP.

Imagine an iMac with not just one camera, but an array of IR cameras (scattered around a hopefully black bezel), through which you can train your iMac to react to various motions of yourself (including eyes, though that will be a tough one for glass wearers.)