Kuo: 24-Inch iMac With New Design to Launch in Fourth Quarter of 2020

Apple plans to launch a 24-inch iMac with a new design in the fourth quarter of 2020, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said today in a research note obtained by MacRumors.

imac 2020 mockup
Earlier this week, Kuo claimed that this redesigned iMac will be one of Apple's first two Mac models with a custom Arm-based processor, with the other being a future 13-inch MacBook Pro.

Following years of rumors, Apple today confirmed its plans to switch to its own processors for its Macs, promising "incredible" performance and features. Apple said that it plans to release its first Mac with custom silicon by the end of 2020, and it expects to transition its entire Mac lineup away from Intel processors within around two years.

In the meantime, Kuo expects Apple to refresh its existing Intel-based iMac in the third quarter of 2020, which encompasses July through September. It is unclear if this model will feature a new design. Apple last redesigned the iMac in 2012.

A last-minute rumor suggested that Apple was going to unveil its redesigned iMac at WWDC, but the keynote did not include any specific hardware announcements.

Related Roundup: iMac
Buyer's Guide: iMac (Don't Buy)
Related Forum: iMac

Popular Stories

m5 macbook pro deal

Why You Shouldn't Buy the Next MacBook Pro

Tuesday February 10, 2026 4:27 pm PST by
Apple is planning to launch new MacBook Pro models as soon as early March, but if you can, this is one generation you should skip because there's something much better in the works. We're waiting on 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, with few changes other than the processor upgrade. There won't be any tweaks to the design or the display, but later this...
iOS 26

Apple Releases iOS 26.3 and iPadOS 26.3

Wednesday February 11, 2026 10:07 am PST by
Apple today released iOS 26.3 and iPadOS 26.3, the latest updates to the iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 operating systems that came out in September. The new software comes almost two months after Apple released iOS 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. According to Apple's release notes, ...
Apple Logo Zoomed

Apple Expected to Launch These 10+ Products Over the Coming Months

Tuesday February 10, 2026 6:33 am PST by
It has been a slow start to 2026 for Apple product launches, with only a new AirTag and a special Apple Watch band released so far. We are still waiting for MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the iPhone 17e, a lower-cost MacBook with an iPhone chip, long-rumored updates to the Apple TV and HomePod mini, and much more. Apple is expected to release/update the following products...
iPhone 16e Bottom Crop

Apple Reportedly Unveiling a New iPhone Next Week

Tuesday February 10, 2026 1:51 pm PST by
Apple plans to announce the iPhone 17e on Thursday, February 19, according to Macwelt, the German equivalent of Macworld. The report said the iPhone 17e will be announced in a press release on the Apple Newsroom website, so do not expect an event for this device specifically. The iPhone 17e will be a spec-bumped successor to the iPhone 16e. Rumors claim the device will have four key...
Apple Logo Black

Apple Acquires New Database App

Wednesday February 11, 2026 6:44 am PST by
Apple acquired Canadian graph database company Kuzu last year, it has emerged. The acquisition, spotted by AppleInsider, was completed in October 2025 for an undisclosed sum. The company's website was subsequently taken down and its Github repository was archived, as is commonplace for Apple acquisitions. Kuzu was "an embedded graph database built for query speed, scalability, and easy of ...

Top Rated Comments

74 months ago
Bought my 27 imac after the redesign in 2010. 10 years later, it still works flawlessly, no slowdown, no issues, just as fast. Incredible for a computer...best money I ever spent.
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
74 months ago

Not sure how they'll reach their "incredible performance" goals by the end of the year, though. Right now, the A14Z is dramatically slower than Intel desktop CPUs and graphics performance is nothing compared to (some) dedicated GPUs.
AnandTech did a very comprehensive benchmark ('https://www.anandtech.com/show/14892/the-apple-iphone-11-pro-and-max-review/4') of the A13 last year, including a comparison between it and Intel's top (at the time) desktop processor, the i9 9900K. The A13's single threaded performance (when actively cooled) was between 4% and 13% slower than the 9900K, depending on the test.

Considering that the A13 was drawing 5-6W, and the i9 draws over 20W per core at full speed, these results are jawdropping. Expect a 20-30% performance increase from the A14 (which Apple has consistently achieved each year), plus higher clocks from desktop-grade power delivery and cooling, and it's entirely reasonable to see a desktop variant of the A14 beating the 10900K (only ~6% faster than the 9900K) by a significant margin.

Exciting times.

EDIT: Graphics performance should be interesting to see. Right now, Apple's mobile graphics are impressive but not industry-leading in the way their mobile CPUs are. That being said, there's nothing to stop them from slapping a PCIe controller onto their desktop silicon and connecting whatever desktop GPU they want.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
74 months ago
Previous WWDC keynotes were always 2 hours and a bit.
This year they also reserved a 2 hour slot.
And they had the advantage of prerecording the entire presentation, so they could perfectly time it.

Yet this year's keynote was only 1:48:00. 12 minutes short of 2 hours. 12 minutes of unused space.

Does look like a last-minute scrap of a "One More Thing..." presentation.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
74 months ago

Not sure how they'll reach their "incredible performance" goals by the end of the year, though. Right now, the A14Z is dramatically slower than Intel desktop CPUs and graphics performance is nothing compared to (some) dedicated GPUs.
“A14Z” doesn’t exist (yet?)

The dev kit and the demos today were the A12Z, which is basically a chip from 2018 with an extra gpu core
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
74 months ago

I think you might be surprised, at least i hope you are. While it doesnt make much sense on the surface, the fact is the ARM mac’s wont be competitive with Intel mac’s from jump. I think we’ll see ARM in the lower end products at first. Further, and perhaps more importantly, the professional sector will be slow to release native versions of software for ARM mac’s. That means many design houses and firms will rely on Intel mac’s for years to come.
Just curious - what makes you think ARM Macs won't be competitive?
Personally I don't think Apple would announce a full transition unless they had complete confidence they could overtake Intel's offerings across all their products. Going by my rough calculations ('https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/kuo-24-inch-imac-with-new-design-to-launch-in-fourth-quarter-of-2020.2242365/post-28591777') I'd expect an A14 based iMac to be faster than an Intel iMac, at least in raw performance. Whether or not it's faster in real world use probably depends on how much overhead Rosetta introduces.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
74 months ago

Not sure how they'll reach their "incredible performance" goals by the end of the year, though. Right now, the A14Z is dramatically slower than Intel desktop CPUs and graphics performance is nothing compared to (some) dedicated GPUs.
I think you are mistaken, because they did announce MAC-SPECIFIC ARM chips, so we will be seeing differences compared to their mobile chips :) And we don't really know as of yet the sort of power-performance these "desktop" chips will have, so just be patient :) But, I wouldn't be surprised if they already have a desktop chip which beats Intel/AMD - don't forget, we don't really know what they have been secretly producing/testing/experimenting all these years, besides their official announcements/product releases - surprises could be in store...
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)