Apple Silicon iMac Pro coming Spring 2022, no 'iPhone Fold' until 2023 analyst says

AppleInsider

A new iMac Pro model with a mini LED display could arrive in the spring of 2022, while Apple's first foldable iPhone likely won't make a debut until 2023 or 2024, a display analyst claims.

Apple's 24-inch iMac could be joined by a 27-inch "iMac Pro" model in 2022, says a display analyst.

Ross Young of Display Supply Chain Consultants predicts that a new iMac Pro device with a 27-inch mini LED display and support for 120Hz ProMotion will launch in the spring of 2022. Young suggests that the 27-inch model will be dubbed an "iMac Pro" to differentiate it from Apple's 24-inch iMac.

While Young did not detail anything about the 27-inch iMac beyond the display, it's likely that any new pro-focused iMac model will sport Apple's M1 Pro and M1 Max chips as options.

It's worth noting, however, that the industry is currently experiencing a shortage of mini LED panels given supply chain and production issues.

Young did note that another rumored Apple device, a foldable iPhone, likely wouldn't launch until 2023 at the earliest. The display analyst believes that it's more likely a folding iPhone will ship in 2024.

Although rumors of folding iPhones surfaced earlier in 2021, reports have quieted down about a foldable Apple smartphone in recent months.

Additionally, the display analyst also says that OLED-equipped iPad or MacBook models likely won't debut until 2023 either. Since Apple mini LED panels are more expensive than OLED panels, Young says that pricing will be "critical" in the battle between the two display technologies.

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duhsesame

I guess OLED finally took off, but it still falls short where longevity is necessary.  People who’s relying on their screen wouldn’t want burn-in after a few years.

jwsc

I don’t get why anybody thinks a folding touchscreen mobile phone is a good idea. One might as well go back to the StarTAC.  It was a good phone for its day. Rugged, small screened, and NOT touch enabled.

sflocal

JWSC said:

I don’t get why anybody thinks a folding touchscreen mobile phone is a good idea. One might as well go back to the StarTAC.  It was a good phone for its day. Rugged, small screened, and NOT touch enabled.

StarTac?  Are you confusing it with the Razr?  I've owned both and the StarTac was great in that it was a basic flip phone with an ancient red-LED screen just big enough to display phone numbers where the Razr was more the "fancy" phone back in the day.

lkrupp

IMHO folding phones are like 5G, a solution searching desperately for a problem to solve, nothing more than marketing hype.

mike1

lkrupp said:

IMHO folding phones are like 5G, a solution searching desperately for a problem to solve, nothing more than marketing hype.

Except, in my area, 5G offers me much faster cellular data than LTE or 4G ever did. Noticeable improvement every time I use my phone.

I can now mostly avoid using public WiFi networks of dubious security and stick with cell data.

tht

While Young did not detail anything about the 27-inch iMac beyond the display, it's likely that any new pro-focused iMac model will sport Apple's M1 Pro and M1 Max chips as options.

It really needs to have the rumored "M1 Max duo" as the top end SoC. It has to be >50% faster than the 18-core iMac Pro in CPU which scores about 13000 in GB5 multi and >50% faster the Radeon Pro 5700XT which scores about 80k in GB5 compute. It's will be 2 years+ from an update to iMac 5K and iMac Pro. There needs to be a reason to upgrade and the M1 Pro and M1 Max really aren't going to be enough.

An M1 Max Duo with 16 p-cores, 4 e-cores, and 64 g-cores should score around 20k in GB5 multi and 110k in GB5 compute. Also, 128 GB RAM should be the top end RAM config at least.

tenthousandthings

tht said:

While Young did not detail anything about the 27-inch iMac beyond the display, it's likely that any new pro-focused iMac model will sport Apple's M1 Pro and M1 Max chips as options.

It really needs to have the rumored "M1 Max duo" as the top end SoC. It has to be >50% faster than the 18-core iMac Pro in CPU which scores about 13000 in GB5 multi and >50% faster the Radeon Pro 5700XT which scores about 80k in GB5 compute. It's will be 2 years+ from an update to iMac 5K and iMac Pro. There needs to be a reason to upgrade and the M1 Pro and M1 Max really aren't going to be enough.

An M1 Max Duo with 16 p-cores, 4 e-cores, and 64 g-cores should score around 20k in GB5 multi and 110k in GB5 compute. Also, 128 GB RAM should be the top end RAM config at least.

Yes, the dual-processor approach seems likely. Then a quad option for the Mac Pro.

I also think this report is probably correct that the larger iMac will be called the "iMac Pro" and there will no longer be two consumer iMac sizes. If you want the larger, more professional display, you buy the Pro. This new display will obviously be a step up from the Retina 5K, and if it is "mini LED" then it will have the XDR designation. The same team that engineered and designed the Pro Display XDR will have created this one as well (and probably again manufactured by LG). Cost surely dictates that it won't be in quite the same class, but it will have a lot of the same advantages.

edited December 2021

patchythepirate

tht said:

While Young did not detail anything about the 27-inch iMac beyond the display, it's likely that any new pro-focused iMac model will sport Apple's M1 Pro and M1 Max chips as options.

It really needs to have the rumored "M1 Max duo" as the top end SoC. It has to be >50% faster than the 18-core iMac Pro in CPU which scores about 13000 in GB5 multi and >50% faster the Radeon Pro 5700XT which scores about 80k in GB5 compute. It's will be 2 years+ from an update to iMac 5K and iMac Pro. There needs to be a reason to upgrade and the M1 Pro and M1 Max really aren't going to be enough.

An M1 Max Duo with 16 p-cores, 4 e-cores, and 64 g-cores should score around 20k in GB5 multi and 110k in GB5 compute. Also, 128 GB RAM should be the top end RAM config at least.

I just want an M series iMac with a black bezel. I hope the entry point for the pro version isn't ridiculous. Also really hoping for some color options as well.

commentzilla

Doubling the M1 Max chips up makes sense and would explain, from what I read, why no one has been able to saturate the chips internal bandwidth much beyond half of its advertised capacity. For a dual chip configuration to work efficiently, the two chips would need to share resources without significant bottlenecks.

The Mac Pro is the big mystery, is how memory expansion will work and what happens to 3rd party graphics cards, especially with the rumored reduction is the size of the enclosure.

tenthousandthings

patchythepirate said:

tht said:

While Young did not detail anything about the 27-inch iMac beyond the display, it's likely that any new pro-focused iMac model will sport Apple's M1 Pro and M1 Max chips as options.

It really needs to have the rumored "M1 Max duo" as the top end SoC. It has to be >50% faster than the 18-core iMac Pro in CPU which scores about 13000 in GB5 multi and >50% faster the Radeon Pro 5700XT which scores about 80k in GB5 compute. It's will be 2 years+ from an update to iMac 5K and iMac Pro. There needs to be a reason to upgrade and the M1 Pro and M1 Max really aren't going to be enough.

An M1 Max Duo with 16 p-cores, 4 e-cores, and 64 g-cores should score around 20k in GB5 multi and 110k in GB5 compute. Also, 128 GB RAM should be the top end RAM config at least.

I just want an M series iMac with a black bezel. I hope the entry point for the pro version isn't ridiculous. Also really hoping for some color options as well.

On the entry point, one way they could keep the starting price down is by making the RAM user-upgradeable, also storage. [I'm not saying they will do so, I'm just saying it allows them to sell bare-minimum configurations if they do.] So the base for the dual-M1Pro iMac XDR could have the minimum RAM and storage. The base for the dual-M1Max iMac XDR would have different minimums. Even if they do that, it's still hard to imagine how they could possibly hit the $1999 starting point of the 14" MBP, but I suppose they could match the $2499 starting point for the 16" MBP. If I had to bet, I'd wager $2299 as the entry point, for a dual M1Pro configuration with minimal RAM (16 GB) and storage (256 GB). The entry point for the dual M1Max (32GB/512GB) would be well beyond that, I'll wager $4599 (i.e., double the entry point for the dual M1Pro).

Without user-upgradeable RAM and storage, then I'll guess $2499 (16GB/512GB) and $4999 (32GB/1TB) entry points for each.

One thing is for sure -- Apple has tons of data and decades of experience with this. They can predict pretty much exactly what percentage of buyers will upgrade via Apple, what percentage will DIY, and everything else. Another thing -- these iMac Pros will blow away even the optimistic predictions Tht has predicted above. If you listen carefully to the podcast interview that Six Colors landed, the M1Pro and M1Max were designed for these dual-die configurations from the start. Reversing that relationship is just clever marketing. Everybody wins!

edited December 2021

commentzilla

I don’t understand this folding phone nonsense. Are the planning to make the phone twice as thin?

tht

tenthousandthings said:

patchythepirate said:

tht said:

While Young did not detail anything about the 27-inch iMac beyond the display, it's likely that any new pro-focused iMac model will sport Apple's M1 Pro and M1 Max chips as options.

It really needs to have the rumored "M1 Max duo" as the top end SoC. It has to be >50% faster than the 18-core iMac Pro in CPU which scores about 13000 in GB5 multi and >50% faster the Radeon Pro 5700XT which scores about 80k in GB5 compute. It's will be 2 years+ from an update to iMac 5K and iMac Pro. There needs to be a reason to upgrade and the M1 Pro and M1 Max really aren't going to be enough.

An M1 Max Duo with 16 p-cores, 4 e-cores, and 64 g-cores should score around 20k in GB5 multi and 110k in GB5 compute. Also, 128 GB RAM should be the top end RAM config at least.

I just want an M series iMac with a black bezel. I hope the entry point for the pro version isn't ridiculous. Also really hoping for some color options as well.

On the entry point, one way they could keep the starting price down is by making the RAM user-upgradeable, also storage. [I'm not saying they will do so, I'm just saying it allows them to sell bare-minimum configurations if they do.] So the base for the dual-M1Pro iMac XDR could have the minimum RAM and storage. The base for the dual-M1Max iMac XDR would have different minimums. Even if they do that, it's still hard to imagine how they could possibly hit the $1999 starting point of the 14" MBP, but I suppose they could match the $2499 starting point for the 16" MBP. If I had to bet, I'd wager $2299 as the entry point, for a dual M1Pro configuration with minimal RAM (16 GB) and storage (256 GB). The entry point for the dual M1Max (32GB/512GB) would be well beyond that, I'll wager $4599 (i.e., double the entry point for the dual M1Pro).

Without user-upgradeable RAM and storage, then I'll guess $2499 (16GB/512GB) and $4999 (32GB/1TB) entry points for each.

One thing is for sure -- Apple has tons of data and decades of experience with this. They can predict pretty much exactly what percentage of buyers will upgrade via Apple, what percentage will DIY, and everything else. Another thing -- these iMac Pros will blow away even the optimistic predictions Tht has predicted above. If you listen carefully to the podcast interview that Six Colors landed, the M1Pro and M1Max were designed for these dual-die configurations from the start. Reversing that relationship is just clever marketing. Everybody wins!

They can continue to have an iMac 27 at the $1800 price point by just having older components. Instead of miniLED, use the old Retina display, that's been coming off the assembly line for about 7 years now. Use an M1 processor with 16 GB. 256 GB storage. New ID though. I think they don't want to do it because too many people would buy it instead of a $2500 model. There are lot of people who just want a large monitor, but even the M1 is more than enough performance. Apple's answer here is probably get an M1 Mac mini and a 3rd party external monitor. Something more haphazard on the desk so they can get you on the upsell to a sleeker, neater on your desk $2500 iMac model.

So, yup, if the "iMac Pro" has a miniLED, base price will be a $2200 minimum, and more like $2400, for an M1 Pro, 16 GB RAM and 512 GB. They have to have an "M1 Max duo". I imagine the starting price for than is something like $3500 for a 12+4+48 model with 32 GB. The true blue no segmentation, no binning model with 16+4+64 is going to slot in at the old iMac Pro price point of $5000. At the least the GPU will be Radeon 6000-series level at 64 g-cores.

h2p

tenthousandthings said:

"On the entry point, one way they could keep the starting price down is by making the RAM user-upgradeable, also storage... $2299 as the entry point, for a dual M1Pro configuration with minimal RAM (16 GB) and storage (256 GB). The entry point for the dual M1Max (32GB/512GB) would be well beyond that, I'll wager $4599 (i.e., double the entry point for the dual M1Pro)....

Without user-upgradeable RAM and storage, then I'll guess $2499 (16GB/512GB) and $4999 (32GB/1TB) entry points for each....

...If you listen carefully to the podcast interview that Six Colors landed, the M1Pro and M1Max were designed for these dual-die configurations from the start. Reversing that relationship is just clever marketing. Everybody wins!

I like where you're going with this, 10,000t! User upgradeable RAM with relatively low price points. Won't happen but I love it. IF it could work with external video cards, THAT would be spectacular. Imagine if they had "dark saturated" versions of some (4) iMac colors! That too, would be very nice. Alas, SpaceGray (& Silver?) may be our only choices.

Otherwise I may be tempted to go with a souped 16" MBP ($3500 USD) and a large monitor with accoutrement.

patchythepirate

commentzilla said:

I don’t understand this folding phone nonsense. Are the planning to make the phone twice as thin?

Apple must be trolling the competition. I don’t see how it’s possible to have a folding screen that doesn’t show wear/distortion, and is still sleek and durable. Apple should release some rumors about making modular phones to get google to spin it’s wheels again with project ara lol

avon b7

commentzilla said:

I don’t understand this folding phone nonsense. Are the planning to make the phone twice as thin?

Some of the first generation folding phones were basically the same thickness as regular phones from just a few years ago. They will get both thinner and cheaper. The main appeal is in being able to 'fold' the phone down to half the size or up to double the size. More screen when you need it and less when you don't. Some folding phones are actually so thin when opened that the design accomodates a 'grip' for better handling.

What turned out to be nonsense were the claims that the hinges and screens were definitely not going to hold up to the stress of everyday wear and tear. That hasn't been the case at all and by most estimates that I've seen, sales are exceeding estimates.

It's been over two years now and many sceptics have gone on record as changing their minds on the subject.

It looks like foldables and probably scrollables are here for the long run. They are even getting 'smaller'. Just look at the Oppo Find N.