Next Monday Night at 5:00pm Pacific/ 8:00pm Eastern there will be Apple’s Scary Fast event. If you had told me that this would be announced today, I would have told you that you were high because nobody had this on their keynote bingo card. Not only is Europe asleep during this event; a good portion of North America would have Monday Night Football on. It's, quite frankly the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen in an Apple event.
Trick or Treat?
Usually when there’s an Apple event we know what’s going to happen before the event is even officially announced. Obviously, this event is following none of the rules. Both Mark Gurman and Ming-Chi Quo think there will be new Macs. Apple backed this up by including the macOS logo in the event animation. The question seems to be which ones. Rumors go from just an updated 24” iMac with accessories to an absolutely bonkers event where multiple M3-series chips are announced in a multitude of Macs. Let’s take the two scenarios and look at what they could mean.
iMac 24” M2
Quite frankly, this is the option that makes the most sense at first glance. New M2-series chips and products were announced just a few months ago at WWDC and the iMac is the only Mac not to be upgraded from either the M1 or Intel. It’s the safe option, but why now? Why in an event? The iMac isn’t as core a product as it once was. Also, making a very Mac Mini-like update with an M2 and M2 Pro could have been done via press release and with an update. While it would be understandable, an iMac and USB-C desktop accessories seem like a bit of a letdown.
The M3(s) Cometh
There’s enough that doesn’t quite add up that makes another option that we could see up to three variants of the M3 more intriguing. First, the M2 itself is over a year and a half old. It feels like we’re past its release Window. That could make an M3 iMac more likely. That said, while the iMac has been shown in short supply according to supply chain rumors, so have all configurations of the MacBook Pro. While M2 Pro and Max MacBooks were announced back in January, there is evidence that they were initially destined for a bigger event last fall. If the M2 Pro/Max were late and the M3 equivalents were on time, this could work.
The big question is why would Apple do this now? I think the answer lies in the architectural improvements that debuted in the A17 Pro. Faster, more efficient P&E cores, neural engine, and most of all the new graphics with hardware ray tracing would be a pretty huge upgrade to Apple’s Mac Lineup. It would also send a message putting Apple’s best technology in its pro machines instead of having to wait 6 months or more just to catch up with a phone. The M2 Pro and Max weren’t enough to entice users from their M1 Pro Macs, the M3-series based on A17 Pro technology could.
iPads
Having iPads at this event is the least likely outcome. The supply chain rumors say spring and Apple heavily implied Mac only. In addition, making the fall about the Mac and spring about the iPad is a nice delineation. You don’t put all our eggs in one basket.
Final Word
The lack of anything concrete and unusual circumstances has really set the rumor and speculation mills on fire. We’ll find out in just under a week what Apple has under its sleeve. In my own opinion, I think we’re going to see something spectacular for this to even be announced and Scary Fast will not just be hyperbole.
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