We might not have long left, but Apple seemingly isn’t finished with October by any stretch. It looks like it could be planning a refresh of the24-inch iMacsooner rather than later.
That’saccording to Mark Gurman, one of the most reliable voices in the tech industry when it comes to Apple’s plans - he’s predicting a hardware refresh in a few different areas.
One of these will seemingly be the 24-inch iMac, which hasn’t been touched since it first relaunched with the M1 chip on board in 2021, two years ago.
That relaunch got a load of design plaudits for bringing classic iMac touches into the modern world, with a range of fun colours to pick from, but it also did have chunky bezels and a big chin, so there’s certainly room for refinement if Apple’s been busy.
From a processing point of view, newer M2 chips have also now been around for some time, and there are a whole heap of rumours around the M3 chip that haven’t yet been substantiated by any official announcement from Apple.
So, while a refresh to the iMac feels like a no-brainer, it’s far from certain whether it’ll actually be the machine to usher in the M3, or ship with the M2 instead.
For our money, we suspect it’ll be a while longer before we hear about M3 - not least becauseApple Vision Prois coming with M2 inside, and we’d be pretty surprised if Apple dropped a new chip before its flagship mixed reality headset is even really available to buy for normal people.
More new arrivals
If the MacBook Pro lineup is indeed getting a minor update then despite our reservations the likelihood of the M3 chip accompanying it probably goes up by a decent notch, so this will be one to watch.
Apple’s own chips have been on a roughly annual update schedule so far, so there’s certainly a heck of a lot of logic behind the assumption that the M3 is imminent. Gurman also rightly points out that some MacBook Pro models are also on quite lengthy back-orders on Apple’s own store, which sometimes heralds new hardware revisions on the way.
That said, there are really no guarantees here, and Apple famously plays all of its updates and events close to the chest - so while this might mean we’ll soon get notice of a late-October event or stream, or indeed that new models simply appear on the Apple Store at a certain point, don’t hold your breath too hard.
