M3 MacBook Pro models might leap ahead of WWDC 2024 launch expectations

A new report claims that Apple’s brand new M3 Macbook Pro models could come during the usual MacBook Pro launch window of early in the year for 2024, bringing with it the possibility that Apple might debut its new M3 Apple silicon chip much earlier than expected.

When the MacBook Pro models launched in 2022, they introduced the world to the boosted M2 Pro and Max chips, developing on the already released M2 chipset. Next year, however, things look a little different, with a release date pegged for ‘early to Spring 2024’ — before the previously expected release of the M3 chip itself.

Accelerated development?

In 2022, the M2 chip and the MacBook Air redesign were announced over the same event — WWDC. It was a big launch for a new processor and a completely new laptop, bringing with it the next generation of Apple Silicon. This year (Or next, depending on how you look at it) seems to be shaping up differently, thanks to a report from Mark Gurman in his Power On newsletter.

He says that the MacBook Pro 14 and 16-inch have just reached the DVT stage of testing and manufacture, otherwise known as the design validation test. He continues, placing them for a release between “early next year and Spring”, matching the MacBook Pro release schedule from the past.

These laptops, however, are reported to carry the latest M3 chips, which we didn’t expect to launch until WWDC 2024 — although now it looks like that date has been shifted forward. It could be, in that case, that we see the new M3 Pro and Max chips either launch alongside the M3 chip (most likely going into another MacBook Pro 13-inch) or even before.

The MacBook Air containing the same chip, on the other hand, is expected to launch around WWDC in the Spring/Summer period, much like its predecessor. That would match the laptop’s previous launches, leaving the M3 coming later than its predecessor.

It’s likely that M3 will come alongside the M3 Pro and Max chips — but what computer it will ship in remains to be seen.