2 min

New MacBook Pro models using Apple’s custom-designed M1 silicon and Mini LED displays could arrive this fall. The news comes from a Taiwanese publication known as DigiTimes and is in line with an announcement that Apple made last summer about its chips.

The iPhone maker announced that the entirety of its Mac products would fully transition from using Intel CPUs to the custom M1 chips it developed. The company aims to do this in a time frame spanning 2 years.

The first Macs to use it were the MacBook Air and the low-end configurations of the Mac mini and 13-inch MacBook pro.

The transition

At the beginning of this year, Apple introduced the 24-inch iMac, all of which had the M1 chip and the first Apple Silicon SoC for Macs.  Another device that received the M1 chip is the recent iteration of the iPad Pro.

All these Macs share something else in common as well, low-end configurations.

They come with fewer ports than more expensive machines. All the higher-end Macs are still using the Intel chips, but not for long. At the WWDC 2021, which happened early last month, Apple marked one year since the announcement to transition.

What’s the holdup?

Many people thought that the transition would happen at that event. However, things played out differently. It emerged, after some time, that there were some problems. The supply chains seemed to show that Mini LED display production was facing a bottleneck.

Components in Mini LED displays formed a major part of the DigiTimes report which claims that Apple has gotten new validated suppliers for Mini LED backlights, Zhen Ding and Tripod.

The publication also said that the suppliers are gearing up for major shipments in the third quarter of the year. The new MacBook Pro will debut around the same time, making the DigiTimes prediction all the more plausible.