New 15-inch MacBook Air will stick with M2 over M3, says supply chain

AppleInsider

A new leak said to be from Apple's supply chain in Taiwan says that the company has dropped its plan to use the M3 processor in the 15-inch MacBook Air.

The rumored 15-inch MacBook Air could arrive in late 2023

There have been regular rumors concerning Apple producing a 15-inch MacBook Air, and also conflicting accounts of when it could be released. One thing that has been an on-again, off-again claim that the device would feature an M3 processor -- but a leaker now says M2 is on the table for the new model.

Leaker "yeux1122" now says (in translation) that the M2 processor is "confirmed." The machine translation is not entirely clear, but appears to claim that the change is partly because of issues TSMC may be having with mass production of the M3.

It's further claimed that because of "market conditions and inventory adjustment," Apple was "not in a hurry to mount [the M3]."

The leaker says that it is solely the M3 processor that has been postponed, not the whole 15-inch MacBook Air. That is reportedly on schedule for manufacturing around June.

Leaker "yeux1122" has a track record that includes previously claiming to have had early details of the iPhone 14 from developers.

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dutchlord

Why this obsession with “performance”? Never had a slow Mac anyway. Speed was never a compelling reason to upgrade.

red oak

Putting M3 in this never made sense.  There would be a huge single core gap between this and other parts of the product line 

Looking forward to the day when Apple gets in a streamlined cadence on all Mac updates 

curtis hannah

M3 Seems to be an obvious debut on a new model and considering the M2 will be at least a year old this summer, I'm not sure where this rumour is coming from, it'd make more sense to delay it's release if the processor was running behind.

Really hoping the M3 brings back 2 external displays support as it seems insane to have to pay $2k+ for that feature.

keithw

Apple is confusing customers- both new and seasoned- with their erratic processor launches.  Still no Mac Pro. Still no 27" iMac.  Still running M1 products in the iMac and the Mac Studio. You can buy an M2 Max, but not in the Studio. You can't buy an M2 Ultra (yet) in anything.   New process startup and supply chain issues are one thing, the whole lineup being out of sync is another, and is troubling.  (Before anybody says I'm an "Apple hater," I'm not. we own 5 Macs of various vintages, 3 iPads, 2 iPhones, two Home Pods, an Apple TV, and 3 Apple Watches.)

Marvin

red oak said:

Putting M3 in this never made sense.  There would be a huge single core gap between this and other parts of the product line 

Looking forward to the day when Apple gets in a streamlined cadence on all Mac updates 

If they don't use M3, that means M3 will either launch very soon after or not until 2024. The latter means no 13" Air update for 2023.

The plus for Apple is that it would be another compelling upgrade next year as N3 will make the Air as fast as the M1 Pro.