2018, 2022, and 2021 had no hardware. Stop making this argument. This is a software event, that sometimes has hardware, usually when it is relevant to the software being discussed. This event is also just a little bit more than a month away, and there is nothing in the supply chain pipeline to point to. In other words, there is no hardware at WWDC 2024.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
The Gurman WWDC prediction problem
- Thread starter Newgoblin49
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
2020 takes a bit of a stretch to call a year for hardware announcement, though. Yes, they talked Apple Silicon, but the only piece of hardware presented was a DTK.
2018, 2016 had no hardware either. So what could be said for sure is that they seem to be holding this event even when they don't have hardware to announce.
Which makes sense since it's a worldwide developer conference with focus on getting developers to maintain their apps and products within Apples ecostystem. This sometimes includes a presentation of upcoming hardware, or a piece of hardware that would be useful for the demographic in question.
It is a developers event and as such if new hardware is announced, its jointly beneficial for developers and Apple to show that they have achieved specific hardware goals.
You’re wilfully ignorant , 2022 did have hardware announcements.
there were reports in January on the Mac Studios coming by the mid of the year
For the chip side of things, at least there's precedents of several skips. For instance, there was no A7X, A11X, or A13X chips.
I know those were for the iPads, but now that all devices are on Apple chips, I could see some generations skipping the Pro/Ultra chips depending on timing.
I know those were for the iPads, but now that all devices are on Apple chips, I could see some generations skipping the Pro/Ultra chips depending on timing.
I can see an ultra 3 in summer to fall 2023. If Apple has to release M4 ultra, it will be most likely mid 2025. If M3 ultra is ready to go, I don’t see any reason to wait. Fall 2024 will be about high volume products like iPhone and MBP, which is Apples best Mac line revenue generator.
Gurman has the most updated sources so you can always count on him to change his story tomorrow or next week. Then it will change again. Then Apple will come out with something different and Gurman will quickly state where his sources got it wrong. He's always on top of things so trust him.
I remember we blamed Intel for the spotty upgrades and why the desktop computers were left to rot and we hailed the Apple Silicon uprising that would supplant that behaviour.
It's really annoying as a primarily desktop user that we still are treated like this and desktop machines are left in limbo and trailing laptops for 6 to 30 months. That's absolutely ridiculous.
It's really annoying as a primarily desktop user that we still are treated like this and desktop machines are left in limbo and trailing laptops for 6 to 30 months. That's absolutely ridiculous.
nope, when he is wrong these users jump on him and not apple...when he is right, the same users are dead silentSo when things go wrong, Gorman blames his sources? 🤣
Yeah, their behaviour with desktops has been very lacking. Why are some Macs supposedly skipping available chips? Hell the iMac fully skipped the M2 and that was weird. The Mac mini has had chips ready to update it and we’re in April with nothing. The Max studio apparently needs the Ultra to be available to update both versions at once, which is silly. It’s all just weird.
The reality is that desktop computers don't sell as well, so whenever there's too much on the table for Apple's notoriously "lean" product design teams, you might see delays in updating them. Even when doing so seems like a wide-open slam dunk, e.g. putting M2 in the iMac or M3 in the mini.
Over in x86 land, I'd point out that Intel has been delaying generational upgrades to workstation and server products a minimum of 1 calendar year for a very, very long time. For example, Sandy Bridge released in 2011, and Sandy Bridge EP (the workstation/server chips built from the same CPU cores) released a full year later. Apple's equivalent to that type of chip is the Ultra, and they haven't been doing significantly better or worse than Intel - e.g. M2 to M2 Ultra was about 1 year.
There's a very good reason for this - these high end chips are significantly more complex and thus need more validation work to verify correctness before launch, so it's difficult to have them ready to go on the same day as the consumer chips.
Actually we go back and look at when a particular rumor started and what sources ends up right and wrong. Take for example the discussion of 15" MBA that actually dates from Jan 2021 from Gurman, it was finally released WWDC 2023. But the rumors had several months of predicting times its would arrive. That over 2 1/2 years. The story of when the next SoC arrive is fun to discuss, but not when you start predicting all the times products will be announced. In that regard Gurman is a liability because he continually blabs stuff that will impact Apple business without being more discrete like previous rumor columnists.
While Apple has confirmed the day, so far the speculation is about iPads, a new Magic Keyboard, and a 3rd Gen Pencil that offers a new squeeze gesture.
But it would make sense to also update the Mac mini at this time also as a surprise one more thing. Then if Apple wanted to show off the M3 Ultra (Studio Mac/Mac Pro) with its newer enhanced 3nm process that could be just a few weeks later at WWDC, compared to the standard 3nm process used for the production of earlier M3, M3 Pro, M3 Max.
10 days to May 7th
44 days to June 10th
Last edited:
It’s funny because when we get strong rumors of a possible hardware announcement at WWDC, we get all of these post that ”WWDC is about software. Apple doesn’t announce hardware at WWDC”. Then some of us post lists of hardware that was announced or previewed at WWDC.
I don’t think that Apple sees WWDC as strictly software but it hasn’t been where they do most of their hardware announcements either. I think, if they have some hardware that they want to get out, they will use whichever event is handy and will give them some notice. Or if there is a developer story related to the hardware. In this case, I would not be surprised if the M3 Mac updates are done and they are ready to move on to M4 and that M4 may not be ready to announce in June. There is no reason to tie a new chip release to the new OS at WWDC unless there are significant changes and just another in the M-series would not be enough to warrant that.
It does look like they are getting a bunch of hardware announcements out in early May to clear the field for WWDC. They do often do that to avoid distracting during the conference. It looks like mostly iPads but they could tack on a HomePod or some other small market hardware change.(USB-C peripherals perhaps?)
Last edited:
Yes, it sounds like they have a lot of software changes to show this year. It’s likely to be a very full presentation. Unless they have some game changing hardware, I would expect them to delay the hardware announcements until Fall.
The M3 Ultra is suppose to be the first SoC to offer a significant bump in the number of CPU cores (32 vs 24), and its would be a more advanced 3 nm process. Last August Gurman was predicting that M3 Max was late-2024 release at the earliest. Now he completely gotten into this AI enhanced M4 coming at the same time. Wanna guess which is more likely? For creative types which is more important superior CPU/GPU capabilities to cut work time to achieve results or talking up AI like the mixed reality headset to save this industry like last year?
Highly doubtful any Mn Ultra would be a "one more thing" in an iPad event, a new high-end SoC would make more sense at WWDC...
Economy numbers that came out Friday were really bad. GDP only came out to 1.6 percent growth. They were expecting 2.4 percent or higher. consumer debt on credit cards is exploding.
So makes sense to go straight into M4 newer tech chip to get people to buy instead of finishing out M3 which has only been a 15 to 20 percent improvement over M2. Plus everyone wants AI in upcoming CPU's.
So makes sense to go straight into M4 newer tech chip to get people to buy instead of finishing out M3 which has only been a 15 to 20 percent improvement over M2. Plus everyone wants AI in upcoming CPU's.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought current intel pro processors don't even incorporate a neural processor until later in 2024 for the first time. So if most windows 11 operating adaptations to AI are without NPU's, and even the M1 has a NPU, what difference does a much faster NPU provide in the next MacOS that is so exciting? I'll wait and see what WWDC brings to the table.
Last edited:
WWDC was never about one of the either. WWDC is about developers, be that hardware and software.
Last August Gurman was predicting that M3 Max was late-2024 release at the earliest. Now he completely gotten into this AI enhanced M4 coming at the same time. Wanna guess which is more likely? For creative types which is more important superior CPU/GPU capabilities to cut work time to achieve results or talking up AI like the mixed reality headset to save this industry like last year?
I think you are severly underestimating the use of AI for “creative types”, just as a lot of AI talk is “hype” due to people wanting to jump on the AI bandwagon.
One only has to look at the updates/releases of Adobe products in the past 2 years (or ask a graphic designer) to see how important AI is in the creative industries. Basically AI is currently the biggest area of advancement in the toolsets for “creative types”.
My other half is a graphic designer and says it’s been surprising how AI has advanced and been implemented so quickly in her workflow and toolset - even if some of what is branded AI would previously have been just called a new feature or filter.
Today Gurman is saying there’s a strong possibility the new upcoming iPad Pros will have M4 not M3. This is a rumour I have heard before, so probably Gurman regurgitating rumours from others as he often does (he has to find something to write each week).
AI is good for automation of auto correction of photos and removing objects or people, but it can also be used to generate misinformation or yield fake imagery or other media. I certainly see the good and bad usage of AI out there which I pretty sure Apple will avoid all together instead of running in legal lawsuits concerning plagiarism or violating copyright. AI was the basis of the very long strike by actors to avoid fake scenes of dead actors be used without permission.
AI Misinformation: How It Works and Ways to Spot It
Determining what's real online is getting more difficult as AI and deepfakes spread across social media platforms. But there are steps you can take to deal with it.
Then we have the example of Google AI being applied to historical imagery where it went and altered the racial features of content. That was a very obvious AI goof. But material that is harder to discern is likely out there on the internet.
AI-generated images are everywhere. Here's how to spot them : Life Kit
It's easy to be fooled by AI-generated images and other content. We talk about how to identify them, how media literacy can help, plus how to use these tools responsibly.
www.npr.org
So don’t get me wrong using AI in programming to automate some functions with content creation is very acceptable , it doesn’t excuse a lot of AI programming that is out there that can be misused. This is what Apple is likely avoiding with how they implement digital assistants in the next operating systems and applications.
On your last note of Gurmans Sundays article he is very much over speculating what might occur.
Example
Good luck convincing us that iPadOS can change so much overnight Mark.
Last edited:
To be fair, iPadOS can change as much as Apple want it to, they might even allow MacOS apps to run on iPadOS one day soon. i.e. Catalyst opposite.
In this exact scenario I’m thinking it would require an M(4?) based iPad Pro and a Magic Keyboard and bluetooth connected Magic Mouse (basically just like I do now when usb-c cable-tethering my current iPad Pro to my MBP and using SideCar, except with the app running on the iPad not the Mac - meaning I don’t need the cable or Mac nearby once the app is installed on the iPad).
A feature like that would I think ignite iPad sales.