Apple will release its first M3-based MacBooks in 2024, not later this year as many had expected, according to a new five-year global notebook shipments forecast published by DigiTimes. The chips will be based on TSMC’s 3nm fabrication process.
The report predicts an end to the two-year-long decline in notebook shipments, forecasting a 4.7% shipment growth in 2024 thanks to the easing of inflation and the release of new products, including new M3-powered MacBooks.
In 2023, the share of notebooks built using Arm-based processors will likely decrease rather than increase because Apple, which adopts in-house designed Arm-based CPUs for most of its notebook lineups, is expected to experience a significant decline in shipments in 2023 as the US brand vendor plans to transit to CPUs built by a 3nm node at TSMC for performance upgrading in 2024.
In July, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman said the first M3 Macs, which will be based on the 3-nanometer production process developed by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., should debut in October. He said the M3 Pro and M3 Max Macs won’t arrive until 2024. And it’s likely that an M3 Ultra chip won’t debut until the end of that year at the earliest.
However, in September, Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple likely wouldn’t launch new M3-powered MacBook models before the end of 2023.
The as-yet-unannounced M3 chip is expected to be fabricated using chipmaking partner TSMC’s 3nm process, which will result in significant performance and power efficiency improvements over the 5nm-based M2 chip Apple currently uses. TSMC kicked off mass production of 3nm chips in late December 2022.
