Apple has already announced that the opening keynote presentation for its big WWDC 2023 event will be on June 5, 2023, so the next question is: what will be unveiled? More than one new MacBook at least, if the latest industry rumors are to be believed.
This comes from the latest Power On newsletter (opens in new tab) written by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman – someone with a solid track record of Apple predictions – who claims that the new MacBooks will show up alongside a host of software updates and the much-anticipated Apple VR headset.
Gurman isn’t specific about the MacBook models that will get shown off, but he does name some laptops that are thought to be in production and adds that “at least some of the new laptops” will appear at WWDC, according to insider sources.
However, Gurman states that any MacBooks that do show up won’t have the next-gen Apple M3 processors inside: instead they’ll have “something in line” with the existing M2 chips, perhaps a small-ish upgrade. So which MacBooks are we most likely to see in June?
15-inch MacBook Air
The Apple MacBook Air 15-inch is the laptop most likely to appear at WWDC 2023.
Rumors that a MacBook Air 15 could be coming in 2023 started almost a year ago, and have ramped up in recent weeks. We’ve never seen a MacBook Air with a screen that big before, and it’ll be interesting to see how Apple sells it, considering that the whole point of the Air is to offer a package that’s as light and portable as possible.
According to people in the know, production on components for the bigger MacBook Air is already underway, and only a couple of days ago we heard that the new 15-inch Air would stick with an M2-style processor rather than making the jump to the M3 CPU (the source for that latter story was once again Mark Gurman). Right now it looks almost certain that we’ll see this laptop at WWDC 2023.
13-inch MacBook Air
So what of the smaller, standard MacBook Air? The MacBook Air M2 only launched last year, so it’s not necessarily due a refresh just yet – but speculation persists that we’re going to get an updated smaller MacBook in 2023 too. This is widely known as the 13-inch MacBook Air, although the screen size is actually up to 13.6 inches (from 13.3 inches) on the most recent version of the laptop, so it’s getting close to the 14-inch mark.
Where this all gets a bit fuzzy is with the internal specs: rumors that the MacBook Air 2023 could get an M3 processor upgrade would make sense in terms of Apple justifying a second model in two years, but Gurman’s sources are saying the WWDC 2023 laptops are going to stick to M2 (the M3 chip hasn’t even been announced yet, after all). This is, perhaps, a laptop refresh that’ll be happening later in the year.
13-inch MacBook Pro
Then there’s the 13-inch MacBook Pro, the entry-level model for the Pro series. Like the 13-inch MacBook Air, this laptop was refreshed last year – but while the processor was upgraded to an M2 chip, the design remained unchanged (Touch Bar and all), and that makes us think this model might be due another update in 2023. It could then be brought in line with the look of the bigger (and newer) models, such as the MacBook Pro 16-inch 2023.
Apple does tend to update the different sizes of the Pro laptops at different times of the year, so that’s another reason why we might see a new 13-inch MacBook Pro at WWDC 2023, even if the processor doesn’t change significantly. It would at least bring consistency to the MacBook Pro series in terms of the design, with the squarer edges on the chassis and the notch at the top of the display.
And there’s more
MacBooks aside, Gurman again reiterated that a refreshed 24-inch iMac 2023 and a Mac Pro with M2 or M3 chips are also due to go on sale “either this year or in early 2024.” He also mentioned two new Mac Studio models, but with the caveat that the timings on these is less clear.
Given that we’re also expecting to see plenty of news around iOS 17, watchOS 10, iPadOS 17 and macOS 14, plus the potentially groundbreaking VR headset, it looks as if Apple’s latest developer conference will be a big deal all round. We’ll continue to round up all of the latest news and rumors around the event in our WWDC 2023 hub, so bookmark it and check back regularly.
