While hype is building for Apple’s September 9 event, where it’s expected to launch its new iPhone 16 lineup, fans of the company’s Mac and MacBook devices could have a more exciting launch to look forward to in the coming months, with new rumors suggesting that PCs and laptops coming with Apple’s M4 Pro and M4 Max chips are just about to enter mass production.
Those rumors, first reported by DigiTimes, claim that production of the next generation of MacBook Pros will ramp up in August, and if correct, it means we could see an official launch very soon.
The smart money is on an October launch for the M4 generation of MacBook Pros. For a start, it means that focus during September can be on the new iPhones, and then a month later that can switch to new Macs. If Apple Intelligence, the Cupertino company’s upcoming artificial intelligence (AI) product, is going to debut at the September 9 event, Apple will want to launch its AI-capable Macs while the hype is real – another reason why October makes sense.
Analysis: Finally, some M4 Macs
The launch of M4 Macs won’t be too much of a surprise – but the amount of time we’ve had to wait is. At the moment, there’s only one product that’s powered by the latest M4 chip – the iPad Pro (2024, M4), after Apple took the strange decision to debut its new chip in a tablet, rather than a MacBook, as it has done with previous generations of its M-series chips.
If you want a Mac or MacBook at the moment, you have to make do with the M3 chips – a fine bit of silicon, no doubt, but it means you miss out on the performance and efficiency gains of the M4 chip. Meanwhile, when reviewing the latest iPad Pro, I felt that the potential of the M4 was being held back by iPadOS and only being able to run mobile apps.
For people hankering for M4-powered Macs, then, it seems the wait could almost be over, with 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros coming with the M4 Pro and M4 Max potentially just over a month away.
Recent rumors suggest it won’t just be super-powerful (and expensive) MacBooks launching with M4 hardware, either, with Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman hinting that there will also be MacBooks and a Mac mini that run on the entry-level M4 chip as well.
Hopefully these rumors turn out to be true – and it means for people who aren’t interested in new iPhones (like me), October could be a very exciting month.
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matthew.hanson@futurenet.com (Matt Hanson)
