Kuo: 27-inch Apple external display coming this year, new iMac Pro and Mac Pro in 2023

Ming-Chi Kuo has continued his newfound career as a Twitter leaker by today sharing his predictions for Apple’s desktop roadmap.

The respected analyst said that he expects Apple to ship a high-end Mac mini this year, as well as a 27-inch Apple external display. However, he suggests that updates to iMac Pro and Mac Pro will not arrive until 2023.

The Apple external display would apparently be more affordable than the Pro Display XDR, in part because it is smaller in size well and would also be less technically advanced, such as lacking mini-LED backlight technology.

The 2023 roadmap for iMac Pro and Mac Pro is somewhat of a disappointment, given Apple’s originally announced schedule to transition all of its products within two years.

Apple started the M1 transition in October 2020, so we would expect it to conclude by the end of 2022. However, it is possible that the company has faced production delays, especially in light of the ongoing chip shortage and general COVID-related disruptions, since it made that original claim.

A more powerful Mac mini coming this year corroborates previous rumors, as Apple looks to replacethe remaining Intel Mac mini configurations with Apple Silicon options. In fact, a higher-end Mac mini with M1 Pro and M1 Max chip internals is expected to arrive as soon as next week, at Apple’s ‘Peek performance’ event on March 8.

Earlier this week, 9to5Mac exclusively reported that Apple was developing a ‘Mac Studio’ and companion Studio Display. The Studio Display is expected to feature a 7K resolution panel and is likely meant as a successor to the Pro Display XDR. What Kuo seems to suggest in his tweet is that Apple is also readying a separate, lower-end monitor aimed at the mass market.

This is certainly not the first time that the possibility of multiple variations of Apple external display has been floated in the rumor mill.

In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said that Apple recently completed development of an external display and its unveiling could be one of the announcements at the Apple event on Tuesday.