Apple's New MacBook Pros With Homegrown Chips Won't Launch Until Early Next Year But Delay Is Justified: Gurman

Apple, Inc.’s AAPL best-performing product in the September quarter was the Mac, which registered over 25% year-over-year revenue growth.

The tech giant could be getting ready to launch more new Macs early next year, Bloomberg columnist Mark Gurman said in his weekly “Power-On” newsletter.

What Happened: Apple is working on launching upgraded versions of M2-based 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros in the first quarter of 2023, Gurman said, adding that the launches will be tied to the release of the upcoming macOS Ventura 13:3 and iOS 16.3. These software updates, according to the Apple specialist, will be rolled out anywhere between early February and the beginning of March.

The redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros powered by M1 Pro and M1 Max chips launched in October 2021 helped Apple rake in Mac revenue of $10.9 billion in the holiday quarter, Gurman noted. Since this year's holiday quarter isn’t likely to have Mac refreshes, he expects revenue from the product to be far below that in the December quarter.

December's quarter Mac revenue growth will also notably trail September's quarter 8% growth, the columnist said. Analysts have modeled Mac revenue growth of 3% for the holiday quarter, which would still be good enough to get Apple into record territory, with revenue projected to top $128 billion, he said.

See also: Major Apple Supplier Goes Into Closed-Loop Production Due To COVID Resurgence In China: Will It Impact Q4 iPhone Shipments?

What’s New With New Macs: Gurman expects the new MacBook Pros to continue to look like the current models, except for the processors. The M1 Pro and M1 Max chips will likely be replaced by the first M2 Pro and M2 Max processors, he said.

“The M2 Max will go to 12 CPU cores, up from 10, and see its top graphics option move to 38 cores from 32,” Gurman said.
Given Apple announced in 2020 that the transition to homegrown chips will happen in about two years, the first Apple Silicon Mac Pro coming next year is clearly running behind its own self-imposed timeline, the Apple writer said. But the delay is justified, as the machine will be superior to what Apple originally intended to offer, he added.

Apple closed Friday's session 7.56% higher at $155.74, according to Benzinga Pro data.

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