The 24-inch iMac might be stuck with an M1 until the M3 chip arrives in 2023

Apple hasn’t yet introduced the M2 System on Chip, but Mark Gurman, Bloomberg’s Apple expert, says that Apple is already working on the M3 chip. And it may make its way into the next-generation of the 24-inch iMac.

Apple introduced the 24-inch iMac last spring with an M1 processor and a complete redesign. In the latest edition of his weekly Power On newsletter, Gurman suggests Apple will skip the M2 processor entirely with the follow-up model and instead release an M3 version, which will presumably be based on a new architecture with more cores. “If you’re waiting for a new iMac, i’m hearing an M3 version of that desktop is already in the works,” Gurman writes.

The M3 will be the third generation of Apple’s home-made chips based on ARM, following the M1 and upcoming M2. Gurman believes that the M3 iMac won’t launch until “the end of next year at the earliest.” That would put the iMac on a lengthy cadence of nearly three years. Apple previously updated the 21.5-inch Intel iMac every two years, but the performance of the Apple silicon chips could give the new model a longer shelf life.

As for the elusive larger iMac, which was rumored to be getting an update this year but is more uncertain now that the 27-inch iMac was discontinued in March 2022, Gurman insists that a new model is in development, but cautions that “it just won’t be anytime soon.” 

M2 plans

Gurman also repeats his claims that Apple is planing to launch several Macs with M2 processors in the next few months. These include a M2 MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac mini. There are also M2 Pro and M2 Max chips in development, which will find their way into the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models and possibly a high-end Mac mini. He also suggests that a new Ultra or Extreme chip is in the works to be used in a new Mac Pro.

Gurman believes that the M2 could arrive in June at WWDC. The M2 processor is expected to have a similar architecture to the M2 CPU, with four performance cores and four efficiency cores, though higher-end models could get an increase in cores. It’s expected to being modest speed boosts.