We may not have to wait long to see laptops and desktops using M4 chipsets, considering Apple only delivered the first M3-powered Macs five months ago. Bloomberg claims that Macs equipped with M4 processors may begin shipping later this year. Considering the release schedule of Apple silicon chips thus far, this isn’t exactly shocking. Although Apple is reportedly putting a lot more emphasis on artificial intelligence this time around, the M4 series could be a game changer despite the M3 lineup not offering a significant increase over M2 chipsets.
According to the rumor, there will be three primary variants of the M4, and Apple is anticipated to integrate one of those chips into every Mac model. According to Bloomberg, Apple is now planning to release iMacs, a 14-inch MacBook Pro entry-level model, more potent 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros, and Mac minis with M4 CPUs by early 2025.
Versions of the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air with M4 chips could arrive by the spring, with an M4 Mac Studio to follow around the middle of 2025 and a Mac Pro to come later in the year. However, the publication notes that plans may change.
The Mac mini upgrade will be quite a long time coming, as Apple hasn’t upgraded that device since January 2023. The Mac Studio and Mac Pro got M2 upgrades in mid-2023. M3-powered iMacs and MacBook Pros arrived in October (remember the Scary Fast event?). The MacBook Air, meanwhile, got an M3 upgrade just last month.
With the higher-end Mac desktops, Apple may include support for up to 512GB of memory. The latest Mac Studio and Mac Pro max out at 192GB of RAM, but previous Intel-powered systems supported up to 1.5TB of memory using off-the-shelf components. Apple integrates memory more deeply into its own chipsets, so upgrading the RAM on silicon-based systems is more difficult.
That said, Apple’s major focus for the M4 lineup is said to be artificial intelligence as it aims to catch up (at least in terms of public perception) with the likes of Microsoft and Google. Bloomberg suggests that Apple will highlight how on-device AI processing capabilities of the M4 chipsets will integrate with the hardware and the latest version of macOS, which will debut at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June.
The company is also said to be planning AI-focused upgrades to the processors used in this year’s iPhones. Previous reports suggested that Apple wants to integrate Google’s Gemini AI into iPhones while it works on its own generative AI models.
