Now, with the imminent arrival of MacBook Air with M4the company prepares to give folder to a chip that became a problem rather than a solution.
Apple will remove m3 chips very soon
The M3 was the first Apple chip manufactured in a standard 3 nanometers process, which promised improvements in efficiency and power. However, the problems began in production: TSMC, the company in charge of manufacturing Apple chips, had serious inconveniences with the new technology, which resulted in a somewhat less expected performance and, most importantly, a Manufacturing cost too high. For a company obsessed with the profit margins, this was an unexpected blow.
In spite of everything, Apple maintained the prices of the Macbook Air with M3 at the same level as its predecessor, the M2, so it reduced its profit margin. But as soon as TSMC solved its problems and was able to make 3 Nm chips improved with greater efficiency and lower cost, Apple decided to make the leap to the M4 as soon as possible, without looking back.
The evidence of this change of course was clear with the launch of the iPad Pro in May 2024, which, against any forecast, He arrived directly with an M4 instead of expected M3. Something similar happened with the IMAC, which received an update to the M4 just a year after premiere the M3. These atypical movements made it clear that Apple was in a hurry to get rid of the M3 and prevent more devices from depending on a chip that was too expensive to manufacture.
Some products have even decided to skip the M3 completely. The iPad Air, for example, will pass from M2 directly to M4 in its next update. The same will happen with the Apple Vision Pro, which instead of receiving the M3 or the M4, will wait until 2026 to incorporate the M5. In the case of Mac Mini, Mac Studio and Mac Pro, the strategy has been even more drastic: Apple has decided to completely ignore the M3 and focus on the M4 and its successors.
Mac with M5 chip in 2025
One of the great victims of this situation is the input MacBook Air with M2 Chip, which is still for sale for a few euros.
On the other hand, the situation with the A17 PRO in the iPhone has also followed a similar dynamic. This chip, which came with the iPhone 15 Pro, was manufactured with the same standard 3 NM process as the M3, which generated the same costs of costs and production performance. To take advantage of the chips with manufacturing defects, Apple has resorted to the well -known binning process, reducing nuclei and adjusting speeds to be able to use them on devices such as the iPad Mini and the future iPad of 11th generation.
With the arrival of the first Mac with M5 at the end of this year, Apple hopes to leave behind the M3 stage and return to its normal cycle of releases. Meanwhile, the company has learned a valuable lesson about the risks of adopting manufacturing technologies too soon. For users, the result will be positive: more efficient and powerful chips, without the production problems that marked the injured step of the M3 by Apple.
