Those new M3-equipped iMacs may come in October

Apple may do a new product launch in October, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in his Power On newsletter today, and he speculates that the focus of the presumably-post-iPhone 15 launch will be new Macs, hinting the M3-powered iMac may be among them. Gurman has previously written that Apple is planning to release an M3-powered iMac at the end of this year.

Gurman hedges pretty hard on this prediction, but the timing feels right. The last time we saw a new iMac was when Apple released its colorful redesign more than two years ago.

That doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll see any changes to the form factor this time around. In last week’s Power On, Gurman wrote that larger, potentially up to 32-inch iMacs won’t show up until late 2024, so this refresh may just be a spec-bumped version of the 24-inch model we have now — though that’s hardly a bad thing.

Gurman also thinks we’ll be seeing M3-equipped updates to Apple’s 13-inch MacBooks — the MacBook Air and the MacBook pro — but he doesn’t get explicit about the iPad, saying a possible M3 version of the iPad Pro with an OLED screen will show up next year. He does point out that a faster iPad Air model is in development. That would put Apple’s midrange iPad back on a yearly release schedule after it skipped a refresh in 2021, releasing the M1-powered iPad Air in 2022.

Gurman previously said the new M3 Macs — at least, the iMac and 13-inch MacBook Air — could show up this year or next, making them the first on the new rumored 3nm Apple Silicon chips. At the beginning of the year, well-connected supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said new M3 Pro / Max chips are expected in the first half of 2024.

We’ll have to wait and see as the end of the year approaches whether this rumor will pan out.