After such a historic year for the Mac in 2020, 2021 was difficult to match. But, with Apple’s silicon transition well underway, the question remains: What will the Mac look like in 2022? Good news, buddy. You’re reading a column about the future of the Mac in 2022. Let’s get started forecasting the future.
End of the transition
Apple announced in mid-2020 that the Mac’s Apple silicon transition would take two years. The transition will then begin in the fall of 2020. Doing some quick math here, almost certainly implies that Apple will complete the transition in 2022.
Is that really a prediction? But the truth is that Apple, like almost everyone else, has been put to the test by the COVID pandemic. Apple’s ability to ship products is being hampered by supply-chain issues, and reports suggest that the MacBook Pro launch this fall was supposed to take place over the summer.
Still, I believe Apple will pull it together and complete the transition away from Intel processors by 2022. And by “complete,” I mean that every Mac model that leads a product category will be powered by Apple silicon.
That means Apple silicon models will replace the Mac Pro, high-end Mac mini, and 27-inch iMac. That’s exactly what’s going to happen. (My only slight caveat is that I believe Apple will keep the Intel-based Mac Pro on the market–but it will be buried and really only available to institutions that desperately need another Intel Mac Pro to go with their existing installation and run their legacy software and expansion cards.)
Pro Macs and iMacs
The MacBook Pro helped make 2021 a banner year for professional Macs. However, 2022 will be even better. The Apple Silicon Mac Pro is on its way, and while it will be smaller than the current model, it will be loaded with multiple M1 Max processors.
According to reports, Apple is working on systems that can use two or four M1 Max chips connected together, rather than just one. Those reports, I believe, will come true, and high-end Mac users will be able to purchase a Mac Pro powered by up to four M1 Max chips–40 CPU cores and 128 GPU cores. (Of course, that will be the most expensive configuration.)
With up to 128 GPU cores in the new Mac Pro, Apple will be more confident in another major move: the new Mac Pro will have room for cooling as well as internal storage and input/output expansion, but it will not support external graphics cards. It’s either Apple’s GPUs or nothing.
The high-end MacBook Pro is already an impressive tool for Apple’s target pro markets, with many custom-built enhancements for things like ProRes video encoding and decoding. Consider a Mac Pro with four times the processing power. That will make a lot of people very happy.
I also believe Apple will release an iMac Pro–specifically, the new 27-inch iMac, which I believe will be given a new name and remit. The new, larger iMac will be redesigned similar to the 24-inch M1 model but will include a fancy mini-LED display with a ProMotion screen–imagine the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro screens on a 27-inch iMac. This iMac Pro will be available with the same chip configurations as the MacBook Pro, but I’m curious if there will be an ultra-high-end model with dual M1 Max chips. I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple offers a base model with the same old M1 processor found in the 24-inch iMac or perhaps a slightly updated M2.
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Small packages
That high-end Mac mini has to go as well. And it will be replaced by a new Mac mini that will be available in space gray and offer power comparable to late-2021 MacBook Pro models. Unless Apple renames it the Mac mini Pro, the Mac mini will be the first Mac model to be offered in all three chip configurations–M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max.
The MacBook Pro was the story of 2021 for Mac laptops, but in 2022, the pendulum will swing back to the MacBook Air. The Air will be the first Apple silicon Mac to be updated, with a new M2 processor, a new look, and an iMac-like array of color options. (Yes, you’ll be able to buy a blue laptop in 2022!)
Finally, I predict that Apple will release at least one new standalone display that can be plugged into your Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, or Mac mini, much to the delight of pro-Mac users everywhere. It’s difficult to imagine that the display not support mini LED technology and ProMotion. And I predict that it will be far less expensive than the exorbitantly priced Pro Display XDR.
macOS dreams
The grease goes to the squeaky wheel. I’m confident that the WWDC announcements in 2022 will be dominated by a slew of new features that span iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS. However, it appears that the majority of the work on the Mac will need to go into Shortcuts. After all, with the completion of the Apple silicon transition, Apple will only be entering the second year of its multi-year transition to a new approach to automation on the Mac.
With Shortcuts now available in macOS Monterey, I anticipate that one of the goals of macOS 13 will be to add Shortcuts support to Apple’s other apps. Apple’s own apps used to be intended to be good examples of Apple’s core technologies, but support for automation has faded over the last decade or so. The most significant boost Apple can give Shortcuts is to ensure that all of its apps, both included and in the App Store, can be automated at a deep level. And it all begins with Shortcuts support.
However, this is not the end of the story. Shortcut is a fantastic tool, but it isn’t the best for fine-grained control over small features within apps. As AppleScript begins its long, slow decline, Apple should designate a scripting language as the proper way to control apps on its platforms. I’m not convinced Apple won’t try to shift the burden to Swift, but it’s not really designed for lightweight app scripting. JavaScript, which has long been the second language of Mac automation, appears to be the best option. I’m going to predict that Apple will take some tentative steps toward establishing a scripting language to control apps–but the keyword here is tentative.
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