According to Apple CFO Luca Maestri, the tech giant’s Mac revenue is set to see a significant decline in the first quarter of 2023. During Apple’s earnings call, Maestri revealed that the upcoming December quarter earnings will take a hit year-over-over due to the strong December 2021 Mac lineup.
Mac revenue to see significant year-over-year decline in Q1, 2023
Last year in October, Apple unveiled the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips. In addition to the powerful M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, the machines feature an updated design, mini-LED Liquid Retina XDR displays with 120Hz ProMotion technology, MagSafe 3 charging, 1080p camera, 6-speaker audio, SD-card slot, and HDMI port, and more. These machines led to strong Mac revenue in the same period last year.
Unfortunately, there were no major Macs released in the same timeframe as last year. However, Apple does have some releases planned before the year ends: refreshed 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models and an updated Mac mini. It is important to note that these upgrades are going to be minor, with only the internals getting an upgrade. This is likely the reason why Apple is expecting Mac revenue to take a hit in the next quarter.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman recently revealed that the 14-inch and 16-inch machines will come equipped with the M2 Pro and M2 Max. The M2 Max will have 12 CPU cores—made up of 8 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores—and 38 graphics cores. It will also continue to come with up to 64 gigabytes of memory. The design of the updated MacBook Pro models is expected to remain unchanged.
As for the refreshed Mac mini, it will get the same M2 chip that is used in the M2 MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro. Reportedly, Apple has also tested an M2 Pro variation of the Mac mini, which would increase the core counts of the machine. But, we don’t know if the tech giant will end up releasing an M2 Pro variation of the machine.
This year Apple launched the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 chip as a minor refresh as well as the redesigned M2 MacBook Air. The M2 MacBook Air, which is arguably the biggest Mac release of 2022 so far, features a larger 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display, up to 18 hours of battery life, and MagSafe charging.
Apple recently announced a record revenue of $90.1 billion for the fourth quarter of 2022. Mac revenue accounts for $11.5 billion of Apple’s total earnings for the quarter.
