Next-Generation iMac Chip, Stand, and Color Details Rumored Ahead of Apple Event

[Fuzzball84]

Considering the target market for iMac... what much more is anyone going to do with an M3 iMac compared to an M1 iMac?

We can't wait to hear what people will do with M3 iMac... Answer: Errr, pretty much the same as anyone did with M1 iMac.. Office productivity, email, video conferencing and web browsing...

A redesign with smaller bezels would be far more appreciated!

In terms of any potential longevity... id say a base RAM upgrade from 8 to 16 GB would be much more worthwhile... however, for the target market and most customers needs, including the fact that so many other of their products are still using 8 GB RAM... that this longevity increase wouldn't be so great as you'd expect. An arbitrary processor cut off would be more likely than considerations for RAM.

 

[StudioMacs]

Lazy-ass company distracted making TV shows. With every other streaming app on Apple's platforms they should have stayed out of TV Show and movie business and focused on hardware products and cloud services. iMac is being left languished. iMac Pro should have been out a couple of years ago and iMac should have some ports, ffs.

Apple launching the M3 just a few weeks after the A17 it’s based on. Meanwhile Qualcomm is bragging about their ARM-based CPU coming out in 2024 that competes with Apple’s M1 from 2020.

 

[JippaLippa]

Pretty exciting event.
If I can afford it, I'll get an M3 Ultra mac studio in 3rd quarter 2024

 

[soyazul]

Exactly, and I was about to write that! I don't care about the new iMac if it still has 8/256.

I understand your point, but what do you want? 16/512 base config keeping the same old base price?

Rumors have said 12 GB Ram base config, and maybe 512 storage config.

 

[swiftapplefan]

I really hope they offer at least one color option with black bezels

Maybe they’ll offer the MacBook Air m2 colours for the iMac with the m3 pro chip!

 

[Adelphos33]

Considering the target market for iMac... what much more is anyone going to do with an M3 iMac compared to an M1 iMac?

We can't wait to hear what people will do with M3 iMac... Answer: Errr, pretty much the same as anyone did with M1 iMac.. Office productivity, email, video conferencing and web browsing...

A redesign with smaller bezels would be far more appreciated!

In terms of any potential longevity... id say a base RAM upgrade from 8 to 16 GB would be much more worthwhile... however, for the target market and most customers needs, including the fact that so many other of their products are still using 8 GB RAM... that this longevity increase wouldn't be so great as you'd expect. An arbitrary processor cut off would be more likely than considerations for RAM.

I hear the comment a lot that the current 24" iMac doesn't really need a chip upgrade. That may be true - but if that is the case, why complain bout the computer not being updated for three years? Should the iMac not receive an update at all? It is an interesting question.

 

[gaximus]

Black bezels would be great, but even just bringing the rich colors around front would also be amazing.

 

[Fuzzball84]

I hear the comment a lot that the current 24" iMac doesn't really need a chip upgrade. That may be true - but if that is the case, why complain bout the computer not being updated for three years? Should the iMac not receive an update at all? It is an interesting question.

Im one of the people who has zero issue with a device not being updated for 3 years

There are some devices that are just not for 'prosumers'. This is one of them alongside MacBook Air... they can update MacBook Pros and Mac Studio and Pro every 6 months but it doesnt temp or bother me.

If it works, it works.. plus the longer a product is on the market, the better it is for the environment too.. fewer versions of spare parts to consider, optimised manufacturing, fewer discarded defective units at manufacturing.. and in the meantime Apple can optimise its software more for that hardware.

The iMac is more of a buy it and forget about it device, in terms of it just works and does its job for 5 to 10 years. Testament to build quality, there are still iMacs from 2000s to early 2010s going strong (albeit not fully supported by Apple).

 

[unchecked]

I hear the comment a lot that the current 24" iMac doesn't really need a chip upgrade. That may be true - but if that is the case, why complain bout the computer not being updated for three years? Should the iMac not receive an update at all? It is an interesting question.

It’s also about the price drop. Or rather getting more today than you got yesterday for the same price. The base config at the same price should have more of the specs that matter more, e.g. storage and RAM.

 

[BlueTide]

Something bigger than the current screen sizes and I might bother to have a look.

 

[Blackstick]

My wife is on a 2015 and this will be a huge upgrade for her. She loses a few inches of display size but I'm not so sure she'd notice or care.

She is Apple's quintessential iMac customer. Telehealth psychologist. Nothing but Doxxy (it's a HIPAA-compliant Zoom) and Gmail/Calendar. Cares more about "what colors does it come in, will I look too orange in the camera?"... doesn't know M1 from M3 from Xeon.

 

[norbinhouston]

Could they at least make it ticker to add audio and ethernet ports. Jony is gone, right?

 

[Fuzzball84]

Apple launching the M3 just a few weeks after the A17 it’s based on. Meanwhile Qualcomm is bragging about their ARM-based CPU coming out in 2024 that competes with Apple’s M1 from 2020.

Considering jus how fast the M1 is... I wouldn't laugh at it... the more devices use the efficient ARM architecture the better... for everyone. It also forces the other silicon manufacturers to up their game on efficiency/performance.

 

[lkrupp]

Lazy-ass company distracted making TV shows. With every other streaming app on Apple's platforms they should have stayed out of TV Show and movie business and focused on hardware products and cloud services. iMac is being left languished. iMac Pro should have been out a couple of years ago and iMac should have some ports, ffs.

Just give it up and move on. With that kind of negative attitude go and find peace on the other side of the fence.

 

[Fuzzball84]

My wife is on a 2015 and this will be a huge upgrade for her. She loses a few inches of display size but I'm not so sure she'd notice or care.

She is Apple's quintessential iMac customer. Telehealth psychologist. Nothing but Doxxy (it's a HIPAA-compliant Zoom) and Gmail/Calendar. Cares more about "what colors does it come in?"... doesn't know M1 from M3 from Xeon.

Id say the display size would be more important than an M3 for her... unless she likes to use a lot of AI processing of the video feed to add ears, funny eyes and sticky out tongue lol I'd guess, if not already, a really decent external webcam and microphone setup would be far more useful.

Im not so sure shed notice the speed improvement in day to day use... besides booting.

 

[ignatius345]

Lazy-ass company distracted making TV shows. With every other streaming app on Apple's platforms they should have stayed out of TV Show and movie business and focused on hardware products and cloud services. iMac is being left languished. iMac Pro should have been out a couple of years ago and iMac should have some ports, ffs.

Something interesting you may not be aware of: companies have these things called "departments" and "divisions" where different people do different work. As crazy as it might sound, the designers and engineers who create Mac hardware actually have nothing to do with the programming, production and publicity related to Apple TV+. Similarly, the people who produce that content actually are separate people from the ones who design software. 🤯

I used to think the same thing. I'd go to Chipotle and if my order was taking too long I'd think, "jeez, if these people weren't so distracted with making advertising and maintaining their website and doing their bookkeeping, maybe they'd make my order faster." But then I learned that they are separate jobs done by entirely different groups of people. Who knew, right? I just thought everyone worked on everything randomly all the time.

Anyway, hope this helps!

 

[Blackstick]

Id say the display size would be more important than an M3 for her... unless she likes to use a lot of AI processing of the video feed to add ears, funny eyes and sticky out tongue lol

Im not so sure shed notice the speed improvement in day to day use... besides booting.

I'm not so sure she notices that much. When she borrows my Mac, which is on a 42" LG OLED, she has said "that screen is way too big for me", but from 27" to 24" with smaller bezels? Not so sure she'd have an issue. Definitely one of those things where she'll have to try it in the Apple Store.

 

[dandeco]

Considering jus how fast the M1 is... I wouldn't laugh at it... the more devices use the efficient ARM architecture the better... for everyone. It also forces the other silicon manufacturers to up their game on efficiency/performance.

Yep. Even an M1 with 8-core graphics and 16 GB of RAM can be a fantastic video editing machine.

Though the M1 iMac with such specs wouldn't really be suitable for professional movie or television studios like the 27" Retina iMacs were, it's a good choice for prosumers that rarely go beyond 1080p video, along with audiovisual labs in public schools (especially given that iMacs are already a popular choice for schools).

 

[uller6]

Im one of the people who has zero issue with a device not being updated for 3 years

There are some devices that are just not for 'prosumers'. This is one of them alongside MacBook Air... they can update MacBook Pros and Mac Studio and Pro every 6 months but it doesnt temp or bother me.

If it works, it works.. plus the longer a product is on the market, the better it is for the environment too.. fewer versions of spare parts to consider, optimised manufacturing, fewer discarded defective units at manufacturing.. and in the meantime Apple can optimise its software more for that hardware.

The iMac is more of a buy it and forget about it device, in terms of it just works and does its job for 5 to 10 years. Testament to build quality, there are still iMacs from 2000s to early 2010s going strong (albeit not fully supported by Apple).

I've loved my M1 iMac since Day 1. And it's still amazing - a computer that gets out of my way and lets me get work done. I couldn't say the same for older iMacs - the Intel thin models had a bad habit of filling with dust and getting whiny fans after ~3 years. Then they would start to thermally lag.

 

[Gengar]

Guess I'm getting a silver one then 😂

 

[daanodinot]

Black bezels or gtfo.

 

[Fuzzball84]

I've loved my M1 iMac since Day 1. And it's still amazing - a computer that gets out of my way and lets me get work done. I couldn't say the same for older iMacs - the Intel thin models had a bad habit of filling with dust and getting whiny fans after ~3 years. Then they would start to thermally lag.

Id agree about the thermals... I remember my MacBook Pro from 2013 which had fans that mostly went crazy during updates. At least it wasn't too bad to open them up and clean them out.

And talking about dust... Ive seen some desktop Macs recently (Apple Silicon) that suck up dust like crazy (Mac Studio)

I wish Apple would just add a few mm more and incorporate a removable dust filter you can take out clean, and slip back in. Saves it all building up inside the unit.

Spigin do offer stands than incorporate dust filter... and I have one for my Mini, but time will tell how effective it is.

 

[CarAnalogy]

I really wish Apple designed a desk clamp option for the iMac. I know it would be a low volume seller, but the G4 iMac arm was so clean and versatile, imagine that with another point of articulation.

Serious question, there's no VESA mount version? It never occurred to me until this moment but that would be useful.

 

[Return Zero]

The processor is still not the problem. Base 256GB storage / 8 GB RAM is the problem. They could ship it with the same M1 and bump it up to 512/16 and it would actually be a better upgrade for a computer like this. People aren’t using this to make movies. They’re using it to watch movies and keep a thousand Chrome tabs open and store their pictures. None of that needs a faster processor. All of it can use more storage and RAM.

My guess is they won’t start shipping 512/16 standard until about 2030.

I’ve wondered if there’s any chance 12GB becomes the next base, just to leave more room to nickel and dime us. Maybe even 384GB storage. Lol.

 

[lkrupp]

That makes no sense...since Apple is so big...they can afford to build a new team just for the tv shows.....yea Martin Scorsese was pulled from the iMac project

Yeah, I watched Scorsese’s latest opus last night, all 3 1/2 hours of it. The theatre was overflowing with Apple movie posters, big TV screens in the lobby advertising the iPhone 15, pre-show ads on the main screen. It was all Apple in that theatre.

I don't see why the usual crowd here is upset by that. MacRumor forums have been declaring Peak Apple for years now. Everything released by Apple is labeled disappointing, underwhelming, late, irrelevant, overpriced with crappy UIs. They’ve started the death spiral clock over and over again. So why shouldn’t Apple move on to other sources of income, including getting into the movie business?