As of the end of this year, with the emergence of M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max three processors, Apple's Mac series from Intel to the self-developed Arm architecture processor Apple Silicon two-year period has passed a full year. According to the latest news in the supply chain industry, the development of Apple's M2 series processor has been nearly completed, and it will use TSMC's 4-nanometer process for mass production, and Apple Silicon will upgrade it every 18 months in the future.
In the 2021 MacBook Pro released two months ago, Apple's M1 Pro and M1 Max use TSMC's 5nm process mass production, which is the most powerful and most powerful Mac processor ever built, both chips use M1X's 10-core processor architecture, the biggest difference is the number of drawing cores.
As Apple divides apple silicon product lines into three levels: M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max, according to industry news, Apple will readjust the naming of the Mac series of personal computers in 2022, hoping to be more accurate with the M2 series processor classification, and clearly make product differences and market segmentation.
According to industry news, Apple's post-2022 Mac series of personal computers will be adjusted to six major product lines.
Laptop products will be divided into MacBooks equipped with M2 processors and MacBook Pros equipped with M2 Pro and M2 Max. All-in-one products will be divided into iMacs equipped with M2 processors and iMac Pros equipped with M2 Pro and M2 Max. Desktop-level products include the Mac mini with M2 processor and the Mac Pro with M2 Pro and M2 Max.
In fact, according to the difference in chip and pricing, it can be judged that the MacBook, iMac and Mac mini will be the basic file, used for volume, lightness, and fashionable design. MacBook Pro, iMac Pro is aimed at people with higher demand, whether it is video, music or other content creators, and higher specification chips mean higher prices. As a desktop-level product, a separate Mac Pro must have more powerful performance and a higher price.
It is worth mentioning that Apple will use all Mac series in 2022 using its own developed Apple Silicon, and the combination of M2 series processors and Mac series product lines is more clear, which will help accelerate the generational transition of product lines. The development of Apple's M2 series processors is nearing the end, of which the M2 processor is expected to be launched in the second half of 2022, and the M2 Pro and M2 Max are expected to be launched in the first half of 2023.
According to supply chain practitioners, Apple Silicon will be updated every 18 months in the future. In the second half of 2022, Apple will first launch the M2 processor codenamed Stateen, and then launch the new M2 X processor architecture codenamed Rhodes in the first half of 2023, and release two processors such as M2 Pro and M2 Max according to the different drawing cores. Apple's M2 series processors all use a 4-nanometer process, which will be updated to the M3 series processor after an 18-month cycle, and it is expected to use TSMC's 3-nanometer process for mass production.
As for the new iPhone 14 that Apple will launch in the second half of 2022, according to industry sources, Apple will launch two A16 Bionic processors, both of which will be 6-core processor architectures, but will be differentiated according to the number of graphics cores, supporting 5G dual-band and new generation of LPDDR5, WiFi6E and other technical specifications, all of which will use TSMC 4nm process projection.