Apple announces new Macbook Pro, iMac; opens pre-order in UAE

Monthly instalments are available, and customers can get their devices as soon as next week

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Published: Tue 31 Oct 2023, 11:45 AM

Apple on Monday introduced new MacBook Pro and iMac computers and three new chips to power them, with the company saying it had redesigned its graphics processing units (GPU), a key part of the chip where Nvidia dominates the market.

The new computers and the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max chips were unveiled at an online event heavily focused on professional users.

In the UAE, the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro laptops, and the new iMac desktop with the M3 family of chips are available for pre-order now, and will be available to buy on November 7. The 14-inch laptops start at Dh6,899 and go up to Dh13,539, with the price depending on storage, chip, and other specifications. The 16-inch ones, meanwhile, range between Dh10,499 and Dh16,799.

The new iMac desktop with the M3 family of chips starts at Dh5,499 and goes up to Dh7,179.

According to the Apple website, monthly instalments are available.

Apple also tweaked its overall lineup of computers, appearing to have eliminated a cheaper 13-inch model of its MacBook Pro.

Apple Macs

Apple has seen a revitalisation 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.

As part of the focus on business users on Monday, it showed off a new secure screen sharing feature that would let them on their machines from remote locations.

The company's custom chips, which use design 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.

Unlike other laptop makers that might combine a central processor unit (CPU) from Intel with a GPU from Nvidia, Apple has combined both parts in its Apple silicon chips, which the company claims gives it better performance than its rivals.

Apple's shakeup of the market has spurred Qualcomm to redouble its efforts to make Arm-based chips for Windows, announcing plans last week 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.

Throughout the event, Apple executives compared the performance of the new MacBooks and iMac machines to older Apple machines with chips from Intel, playing up how much speed customers would notice by upgrading to devices with Apple's own chips.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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