Apple first announced its two-year transition from Intel-based chips to its in-house M-series chips in 2020. However, the Mac Pro has notably been missing in Apple’s transition. And much to the dismay of consumers, they will have to wait a bit more to get their hands on an Apple Silicon Mac Pro.
New Mac Pro with M2 Extreme chip slated to launch early next year
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman revealed in an interview with Max Tech on YouTube that Apple had an M1 Mac Pro ready to ship months ago with a variant of the M1 chip. However, it ultimately decided to hold off in order to develop a Pro variant with the powerful “M2 Extreme” chip. As per Gurman, the Cupertino tech giant will preview the new chip and the Mac later this year but the launch is slated for early 2023.
Mac Pro, I think that will be announced end of year. They were going to announce it at WWDC but that didn’t happen. I think they’re going to announce it end of year and then release it next year in 2023 and then there’ll be an iMac Pro at some point as well.
Initially, it was widely expected that Apple would announce the long-awaited M-series Mac Pro in June at WWDC 22. However, the tech giant ended up debuting its next-generation M2 chip in the new 13-inch MacBook Pro and the redesigned MacBook Air.
Last month, Gurman outlined his predictions for the M2 chip cycle in his newsletter for Bloomberg. Gurman said that the tech giant will debut new variations of the M2 chip: Pro, Ultra, Max, and Extreme. He reiterated these expectations during the interview:
I think they’re going to call the chip in the Mac Pro the M2 Extreme. So what that is, it’s the M2 Ultra, so the M1 Ultra but the M2 variation, right. Just like the Mac Studio, the base is the Max and the high end is the Ultra, then the Mac Pro the base is the Ultra and the high end is the 2X Ultra, and I really don’t think there’s anything else you can call it other than M2 Extreme.
The journalist also claimed that it is unlikely for the Mac mini to see a redesign contrasting with recent rumors that suggested the opposite.
Other Macs that Gurman expects to arrive during the M2 cycle include an M2 Mac mini, an M2 Pro Mac mini, M2 Pro, and M2 Max 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros and M2 Ultra Mac Pro.
