After Apple invited the world to its Scary Fast product event Monday, speculation turned more seriously to the idea that newly announced Macs might sport faster new M3 chips rather than versions of the current M2 series chips.
One prominent analyst who had said the upgrade wouldn’t happen yet even changed his tune on the matter.
Macs released at October 30 Scary Fast event may bring M3 chips
Rumors leading up to the Scary Fast event-announcement had been mixed. Some experts and sources said M3 chips might appear in the expected late-October Macs, which would probably include a 24-inch iMac and MacBook Pro models. Others insisted it was too soon for the next-level chips using the 3nm manufacturing process to show up. They probably wouldn’t appear, with their big advances in speed, until 2024.
One thing pretty much everyone agrees on is that Monday evening’s event will focus on Macs. Apple dropped a huge hint about that. And another rumor said those possibly M3 Macs could roll out for sale on November 8, MacRumors reported.
But regarding which chip will run those Macs, ideas varied. In September, prominent and largely reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo had predicted no M3 chips in MacBooks this year. But then he flip-flopped on that with his tweets Tuesday:
I believe M3 series MacBook Pro will be Oct 30th media event's focus. I previously predicted a launch this year is unlikely due to limited 4Q23 shipments (less than 400-500k units in total). If new MBPs launch in Nov-Dec, tight supply will last into 1Q24 unless demand weakens. pic.twitter.com/R6tVIYyQop
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) October 24, 2023
And he included more reasoning below, suggesting lower-than-expected M2 Mac sales — possibly due to a lower power boost than customers wanted — may contribute to Apple’s decision to speed up the timeline for M3 rollout:
As far as I know, Apple attributes the significant decline in MacBook shipments in 2023 mainly to the limited M2 computing power upgrade. I believe this is why Apple may prefer to launch the M3 series MacBook Pro even when its production volume is still low rather than continue…
— 郭明錤 (Ming-Chi Kuo) (@mingchikuo) October 24, 2023
