When will iMac get the M2?

[Spock]

My guess is that Apple will skip the M2 for the iMac and possibly the Mac mini as well (though, they do need to figure out what to do with the Intel Mac mini in terms of that spot in the lineup). The notebooks generally have gotten more religious/regular updates than the desktops. Though, the supply chain shortage seems to have elongated even the MacBook Pro's average refresh cycle by what would've been seen as unusually long in the Intel era.

That just seems so weird that they would skip putting M2 in the iMac, especially since they randomly put it in the 13 inch MacBook Pro. I am not saying you are wrong, I am just saying that it would be weird.

 

[MacsRgr8]

I have my M1 iMac 24" (16 GB) for almost a year now, as my living room Mac which replaced a 27" 2017 iMac (32 GB RAM, Radeon Pro 8 GB).
TBH, although it's lovely computer, it does feel like a step down from that 27 iMac.
Yes, the CPU is far quicker, but the graphics not. Also 16 GB RAM limit does get reached when editing 4K home-movies in FCP X.
(I do have a Mac Studio Max which I adore)

But if you come from a 27" iMac, getting the 24" M1 iMac is not a great update.

 

[Warped9]

I have a 21.5 so eventually going to 24 will be an upgrade.

 

[Yebubbleman]

That just seems so weird that they would skip putting M2 in the iMac, especially since they randomly put it in the 13 inch MacBook Pro. I am not saying you are wrong, I am just saying that it would be weird.

Consider that, even before the chip shortage, the 21.5" iMac moved to a once-every-other-year release cycle. The 27" iMac, more or less, did with it, with the one notable exception being the 2020 release. Though, that one had the introduction of the T2 into the non-Pro iMac line and was the last significant Intel Mac release to occur before Macs started coming out with Apple Silicon instead of Intel inside. The Mac mini only seems likely to get some kind of an update pre-M3 given that there's still a higher-end model with Intel.

Though, at this point, with Apple having an Apple Silicon Mac desktop option with 32GB and 64GB of RAM (in the form of the M1 Max version of the Mac Studio) with the kinds of graphics power that you'd otherwise have to have an eGPU for on the 2018 Intel Mac mini, they could probably get away with just dropping that model without slotting in anything to replace it.

 

[ucfgrad93]

At this point I'm not sure we'll see a M2 iMac. Apple sells more laptops than desktops, so I'm sure they are putting more resources into the laptop line up. My guess is that the iMac doesn't get updated until late 2023 or early 2024.

 

[Deedeekay]

Apples sells more laptops than desktops…

Maybe because they don’t update the desktops as often?

Even I’m considering an M2 Air solely because of the prolonged wait for a damn update, and I have chronic neck pain that is exacerbated by using a small screen/keyboard/touchpad setup.

 

[Warped9]

Maybe because they don’t update the desktops as often?

Not just Apple. Laptops outsell desktops by far and have been for many years. It’s not for me because I don’t actually care for the laptop form personally. I don’t like the smaller screen and preying mantis posture to use the keyboard. For a mobile computer I much prefer an iPad. But for long periods spent working on a device I much prefer my iMac.

 

[Deedeekay]

Preying mantis posture is the perfect way of describing it.

 

[Isengardtom]

I think given the relative small upgrade the M2 is over M1 they may just skip this cycle, and wait for M3