Update: Pike’s Universum has done some more digging and discovered which processors Apple plans to use in its 12-inch MacBooks this year:

  • Intel® Core™ m3-6Y30 Processor (4M Cache, up to 2.20 GHz)
  • Intel® Core™ m5-6Y54 Processor (4M Cache, up to 2.70 GHz)
  • Intel® Core™ m7-6Y75 Processor (4M Cache, up to 3.10 GHz)

Earlier this week Apple introduced a new 4-inch iPhone SE, a smaller iPad Pro, and all new Apple Watch bands at its ‘Let us loop you in’ March event. Just as we expected, news about any update in the MacBook line wasn’t announced. But thanks to a tipster, we’re now discovering references to an ‘early 2016’ 12-inch MacBook with Retina display, which is presumably a follow up to the first generation hardware released last April.

Though the news around the 12-inch MacBook update has been quiet, Digitimes recently reported that Apple is preparing a new 13- and 15-inch MacBook for July. Today’s discovery gives us further expectations that a 12-inch MacBook update may be seen in the near future.

Evidence of the 2016 12-inch MacBook is seen within Apple’s own System Image Utility on the Mac, which is where the reference was discovered, and the OS X Server application available in the Mac App Store.

Using the System Image Utility tool, a user can create a Mac OS X image to then install onto other systems. This speeds up system administrators work when having to install and configure multiple computers. One of the options given within the tool is the ability to limit the configured install image to only select Mac models. In this model filtering list, we see the 12” MacBook (Early 2016) as a possible option to select.

A similar Mac model filtering system is seen in the OS X Server application under the NetInstall section. Under here, an administrator could configure an OS X Server to allow networked clients to receive and install OS X images over the local network. (This was a method used at Apple Retail Stores a few years ago to update customer computers.)

An update to the 12-inch MacBook with Retina display would make sense for the near future. Nearly all the MacBooks are approaching their one year mark since their last release or update. As Mark Gurman previously reported, faster MacBooks are expected to debut by this year’s WWDC, with new MacBook Pros coming in the later half of the year.

Thanks Matt!