Apple’s Awkward Choice Over New Mac Release Date

Apple’s next-generation MacBook Pro laptops debuted the brighter and vivid miniLED displays as part of the redesign. The next Mac release is expected to be the iMac Pro, brining miniLED to Apple’s desktop. But the choice to go with the new technology may have delayed the release to late 2022, and could impact the first M2-based Mac laptops.

News on the delay comes from Apple analyst Ross Young:

“…we no longer expect the Apple iMac Pro to launch in the spring. Looks more like summer. Still with a MiniLED backlight, but fewer MiniLEDs/zones than in iPad/MacBook Pro’s. We expect panel shipments from June, but the product may not launch till August or September”.

 That leaves Apple’s upcoming event with fewer big hitting items and relying on the successful minor league products such as the third generation iPhone SE and the iterative update to the iPad Pro.

What it means for the Mac range is perhaps a bit more intriguing. Apple has stated that it will update the whole Mac portfolio to the Apple Silicon chipsets by the end of the year, and that includes the iMac Pro – it also includes the Mac Pro, so there’s every chance we’ll get a ‘Pro’ event in the back half of the year.

With the iPhone’s traditional spot in September as secure as can be, I don’t see Tim Cook diluting that launch with the Mac story. So we’re looking at a delay from the expected March renewal into the traditional MacBook event in late October / early November. The same event we’d expect the MacBook Air to bump up to the M2, and the perplexing entry-level MacBook Pro to join it. Those are expected to ship with the M2, while the iMac Pro and Mac Pro still feel like M1 based designs.

Apple is going to have a bit of a logjam at this rate, with M2 MacBook Air and MacBook Pros, M1 “Pro And Max” based iMac Pros and Mac Pros, on top of those, and of course whatever joins the iPhone from the September launch. I

could see a decision made to push back the M2 powered Air and Pro laptops into 2023 to give some clear headroom for the iMac Pro and Mac Pro to finish the switch over to Apple Silicon and the M1 family before the end of the year.

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