According to a Bloomberg report this week, Apple is looking to update its entire Mac lineup with new Macs powered by the M4 chip in late 2024 and early 2025. The Mac lineup currently remains fragmented, with some Macs yet to receive upgrades to the M3 chip, announced in October 2023.
The Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro, for example, have yet to gain the latest chip, with all models still featuring M2, M2 Pro, M2 Max, and M2 Ultra configurations. Apple plans to spread out the release of the new Macs throughout 2024 and 2025.
The M4 Lineup and New Mac Timeline
The M4 lineup consists of variants with codenames Donan, Brava, and Hidra, with the latter being the most powerful chip destined for the Mac Pro. Bloomberg reports the following timeline for the M4 lineup and new Mac models:
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- MacBook Pro: In late 2024 with M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max chips
- iMac: In late 2024 with the M4 chip
- Mac mini: In late 2024 with M4 and M4 Pro chip options
- MacBook Air: In the spring of 2025 with the M4
- Mac Studio: Around the middle of 2025 with high-end M4 Max and M4 Ultra chips
- Mac Pro: In late 2025 with the M4 Ultra chip and up to half a terabyte of memory (vs. 192GB currently)
M4 Chip and AI
AI will be the hallmark feature of the M4 line, coupled with major new AI features coming in iOS 18 and macOS 15. The report notes that the new chips are “part of a broader push to weave AI capabilities” within Apple into all of its products. At one point last year, Apple’s R&D into AI peaked at one million dollars a day.
Apple is expected to focus heavily on AI at this year’s WWDC, with several AI-based features making their way to iOS 18 and macOS 15. The A18 Pro chip, expected with the upcoming iPhone 16 Pro, will feature a heavy focus on AI performance, much like the M4 chip reported today. Bloomberg notes the AI focus for the chips is part of Apple’s effort to have more AI features run locally on a device, rather than in the cloud, to preserve user privacy.
Apple is already positioning the Mac as the world’s best AI machine. With the release of the latest M3 MacBook Air, Apple has started to use “AI” terminology in its marketing material, a first for the company that has typically used the “machine learning” moniker to highlight on-device intelligence.
Apple says that “every Mac is a great platform for AI,” and that a 16-core Neural Engine and a faster CPU and GPU make the M3 chip and the MacBook Air the “world’s best consumer laptop for AI.” With macOS Sonoma, these gains help deliver “intelligent features that enhance productivity and creativity.”
AI is already baked into first-party and third-party apps on the Mac, such as in the Photos app for object, scene, and people recognition, and for other apps such as Pixelmator Pro and CapCut. In its press release for the MacBook Air with the M3 chip, Apple notes that thanks to the unified memory of Apple silicon chips, Macs can “run optimized AI models, including large language models (LLMs) and diffusion models for image generation locally with great performance,” instead of relying on remote cloud servers.
Apple will officially reveal macOS 15 and iOS 18 at WWDC, set to kick off on Monday, June 10. watchOS 11, visionOS 2, and iPadOS 18 are also expected to be revealed. All the updates will undergo beta testing throughout the summer before a launch to the public in the fall. The release of macOS 15 will likely coincide closely with new Mac models in the fall.
