Apple's iMac is a safe buy in the Boxing Day sales

One of the problems of shopping for iMac deals is the fear that you might be buying at the wrong time, and no sooner will your shiny new iMac arrive than Apple will announce a newer, shinier and more powerful model. So there's good news for would-be iMac buyers as the Boxing Day sales approach: Apple has no plans to significantly update the iMac any time soon.

That's according to Bloomberg's well-connected Apple reporter Mark Gurman, as reported by MacRumors. Rather than update the iMac with the current M2 chip, Apple intends to wait for the M3 – and that's still some way off.

What's Apple got planned for the iMac?

According to Gurman, Apple has been working on an iMac that will be powered by an M3 chip, which will be the next generation of Apple's own silicon. The iMac is expected to be one of the first M3-powered Macs, alongside a new MacBook Air.

It seems that Apple has decided not to go with the M2 chip that currently powers devices including the M2 MacBook Air and the iPad Pro 12.9. The good news is that means the M3 iMac will deliver a significant performance boost over the current M1-powered model. The bad? The silicon isn't likely to be ready until late 2023.

For would-be Mac buyers, that means you don't need to worry that your new iMac is about to be obsolete – and while the M1 processor is getting on a bit, that hardly makes it a bad buy. I'm writing this on an M1 MacBook Pro and it's an absolute flying machine, even when I push it really hard in demanding apps such as Logic Pro. An iMac bought this Christmas is still a great buy, especially if you can bag one as a Boxing Day bargain.