October could be an exciting month for the Apple world. While it appears that we won’t see an event this month, some rumors suggest that the company has plans to launch a new Mac model. Surprisingly, the most significant clue doesn’t come from the usual channels but from the most unexpected place: Apple’s Trade In program.
A clue that comes from Apple itself, more or less
The website MacRumors has obtained information indicating imminent changes in Apple’s Trade-In program for Mac. According to their source, Apple is likely to start accepting new models for the program this month. What does this have to do with an imminent release? Well, similar changes last June coincided with WWDC, when Apple began accepting the Mac Studio, the 13-inch MacBook Air with M2 chip, and the 13-inch MacBook Pro with M2 chip.
That same month, Apple released the 15-inch MacBook Air, the second generation of Mac Studio, and the Mac Pro with Apple silicon. Logic dictates that the expansion of Mac models accepted for trade-in by Apple this month typically correlates with the launch of a new version of those computers.
But, what machine will it be? In July, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg pointed out that October could be the month when Apple announces the first Macs with the M3 chip. Potential candidates for an update this month include the 13-inch MacBook Air, the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and the 24-inch iMac.
We hope that the yet-to-be-announced M3 chip will be manufactured using TSMC’s 3nm process, offering notable improvements in performance and energy efficiency compared to the 5nm-based M2 chip. It is likely, based on what we’ve seen in the A17 Pro of the iPhone 15, that it will also include a revamped GPU with hardware support for ray tracing, among other features.
However, there is conflicting information. Ming-Chi Kuo stated in September that he does not expect Apple to launch new MacBook models with M3 series chips before the end of the year. If Kuo is correct, this could indicate that the only product to see an announcement this October is a 24-inch iMac with the M3 chip.
We’ll have to stay tuned to how events unfold, but one thing is clear: if the information from MacRumors is correct, we’ll be getting new MacBooks sooner rather than later.
