Apple May Make You Wait Another Year for The Next iMac

For those who love the slimmed down, 24-inch experience of an iMac sitting pretty on top of your desk—no tower necessary—you may need to keep on keeping on with the current build. A credible analyst told Sunday readers to sit tight if they want any more information on a new version of the iMac line.

Analyst Mark Gurman wrote in his Sunday Bloomberg Power On newsletter that Apple is taking a slow and steady approach to updating its iMac series. Apple was supposedly working on an M2-powered iMac as recently as last April, according to reports from the time. Still, even at that time, Gurman had said an M3 chip was “already in the works” and told readers not to expect anything until the end of 2023. The news seemed to imply that the iPhone maker was planning to skip a whole chip generation for the next iteration of its mainline all-in-one device.

The company has not released an updated iMac since 2021, when it came out with the M1 processor. Apple does take longer to announce new iMacs compared to its other mainline tech, but the Cupertino company has since kept mum on any new release, even as it has developed more powerful processors in the time since. With the 27-inch iMac and iMac pro discontinued, the 24-inch device has remained the last lingering desktop device that’s not a Mac Mini, Mac Studioor Mac Pro.

When it was released, the M1-powered 24-inch iMac was a lightweight, quality machine that was the first of its line to run on Apple’s proprietary chip. The base M2 chip, meanwhile, powers devices like the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, devices that still only officially supports one external display. Recent iterations on the M2 have seen that number grow, though.

Gurman said the lack of updates is partly to do with cost, and he hasn’t “seen anything to indicate there will be a new iMac” until the company finally unveils its M3 chip, which isn’t expected until the tail end of this year or even 2024. Still, the M3 chips are expected to be pretty beefywith rumors of 40 CPU cores and four dies compared to the M1 and M1 Max’s 10 cores.