Apple on Monday introduced new MacBook Pro computers and three new chips that will power its laptops and desktops, and the company said it had redesigned its graphics processing units (GPU), a key part of the chip where Nvidia dominates the market.
Apple introduced the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max, as well as the new Macbook Pro, at an online event.
Apple has seen a revitalization in its Mac business, roughly doubling its market share to nearly 11 per cent since 2020 when it parted ways with Intel and started using its own custom-designed chips as the brains of the machines, according to preliminary data from IDC.
“The biggest advancement comes with the GPU,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s chip chief said.
Apple’s custom chips, which use technology from Arm Holdings, have given its Macs better battery life and, for some tasks, better performance than machines using Microsoft’s Windows operating system.
Apple’s shakeup of the market has spurred Qualcomm to redouble its efforts to make Arm-based chips for Windows, and last week it said it plans to release a chip that is both faster and more energy efficient than some Apple offerings. Reuters last week reported that Nvidia also plans to jump into the PC market as early as 2025.
At Apple, the Mac hit $40.18-billion in revenue for its fiscal 2022, or about 11 per cent of its revenue. While that was up 14 per cent from the previous fiscal year, sales this year have slowed along with the rest of the PC industry, which has suffered a post-pandemic slump.
Analysts expect the M3 will be made with 3-nanometer manufacturing technology at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, which uses the same technology to make chips for the top-end iPhone 15 models.