Apple appears to be planning to skip an M3 revision to the Mac mini in favor of a more significant update featuring the M4 chip.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has previously reported that Apple would update the Mac mini line with M4 and M4 Pro chips towards the end of 2024 or early 2025. In a report on Sunday, he’s amplified that, and said that there probably won’t be a M3 Mac mini at all.
The Mac mini was last updated in January of 2023 with the M2 and M2 Pro.
That Mac mini M2 Pro update also came with more Thunderbolt 4 ports, Wi-Fi 6E, HDMI 2.1 for the M2 Pro model, and updates to Bluetooth. It isn’t clear if the next Mac mini will sport any further hardware changes, beyond the M4.
The M4 is thought to get big upgrades to the Neural Engine component of the chip, alongside other AI enhancements. Such improvements are expected to be a major topic of June’s WWDC conference.
Since the M1 was first introduced, Apple has staggered releases of some models. The iMac, for example, was upgraded to the M3 chips late in 2023, skipping the M2 entirely.
Other models are still waiting. The Mac Studio and Mac Pro, like the Mac mini, are currently on the M2.