Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Apple fans shouldn’t expect new MacBooks at WWDC this year

Luke Larsen
By
Stephen Lam/Stringer/Getty Images
Promotional logo for WWDC 2023.
This story is part of our complete Apple WWDC coverage

A new report suggests that Apple won’t be announcing any new hardware this coming Monday, June 4 at WWDC.

Apple’s WWDC is a developers conference, but it’s often used as a platform to launch new hardware. Sometimes it’s new iPads, iPhones, MacBooks, iMacs, or even a new Apple Watch or HomePod. But according to this new report from Bloomberg, that won’t be the case this year.

Recommended Videos

Rather than being product-focused, the emphasis of the event will be on software updates to iOS and MacOS, as well as an overhaul to ARKit. The report details that we’ll get a new mode in ARKit 2.0 that allows two people to play AR games against each other in the same environment on their iPhones. Sounds cool, but again, just don’t expect an announcement about that rumored AR headset we’ve been hearing about for years now.

Related

Bloomberg’s piece doesn’t claim any specific sources, but it’s in line with other recent reporting on the matter, suggesting that the update to the entire MacBook lineup will happen in late 2018 — rather than at WWDC. On the other hand, Apple could give us the CPU bump we’ve been waiting for in MacBook Pros, without needing much of an announcement.

On the laptop side of things in particular, we’ve been waiting for news on refreshed MacBook Pros, as well a redesigned entry-level MacBook Air. The current MacBook Air has been ignored for years, while continuing to sell well for Apple as a budget-friendly entry-point into the Apple ecosystem. In the meantime, looks like we’ll have to keep waiting.

One interesting tidbit from the report is a mention of more interplay between iOS and MacOS. Bloomberg claims that the “focus this year will be on integrating more deeply with iOS.” We doubt that Apple will be ready to introduce iOS apps to the Mac or anything like that, we’d be delighted to hear about some more meaningful integration between the two platforms. With even Twitter pulling its official Mac out of the App Store, it’s really time for Apple to re-convince developers that it’s worth putting resources into.

The keynote to the event starts on Monday, June 4 at 10 a.m. PT, and we’ll be watching it live on our Twitch channel starting Monday morning.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Luke Larsen
Luke Larsen
Senior Editor, Computing
Luke Larsen is the Senior editor of computing, managing all content covering laptops, monitors, PC hardware, Macs, and more.
Apple just announced the dates for WWDC 2024
WWDC 2024 banner.

Apple has just announced the dates for its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2024. WWDC will take place from June 10 through June 14, 2024. A special event will be held at Apple Park in Cupertino, California, on June 10, and we expect to see the reveal of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, watchOS 11, tvOS 18, macOS 15, and visionOS 2.

WWDC will be free for all developers online. Developers will be able to access a variety of online sessions and labs that will showcase the latest advancements in software across all of Apple’s hardware.

Read more
Here’s more confirmation that 2024 will be a slow year for Macs
3nm iphone ipad processors apple silicon imgae

There's some extra reason to believe that Apple could already be working on the M4 chip, but it may not be coming for a while. New research from Canalys, a market analytics firm, shows that the next entry in the Apple Silicon family could come in the first part of 2025 to target offerings from Intel, Qualcomm, and AMD.

Lining up with previous reporting from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Canalys is estimating that Apple could launch the M4 chip in the first quarter of 2025. It's a vague time frame, but it makes a lot of sense. Gurman previously said that Apple already has the M4 MacBook Pro in "formal development." Although this timing lines up with previous Apple Silicon chip refresh cycles, it would leave 2024 looking fairly light in terms of new Mac releases. Apple usually has some kind of October or November release focused on new Macs, but without new chips to launch, that might not happen this year.

Read more
Which color MacBook should you buy? Here’s how to pick
The MacBook Air on a table in front of a window.

Apple’s MacBook laptops come in a range of colors, and selecting which is right for you can be a tricky business. Sure, it’s perhaps not as important as deciding which chip to pick or how much memory you should buy, but it’s still a vital part of the equation. After all, you’re going to see that color every time you reach for your MacBook. You don’t want it to be something that fills you with regret.

But how should you pick a MacBook color? And what do the colors even look like in the first place? We’ve got the answers to those questions in this guide. We’d also advise you to go to an Apple Store to take a look at the MacBook colors in person, as some can be hard to appreciate just by browsing Apple’s website.

Read more