Apple could launch its next generation of in-house processors as early as this year, updating its computing hardware through 2024 and into 2025 with M4 chips - which are expected to offer a big push towards AI capabilities.
Reliable Apple leaker Mark Gurman reports that these potential new Macs would arrive at a “critical time [because] Mac sales fell 27% in the last fiscal year.” Gurman suggests that the new in-house silicon is nearing production and that the M4 chip will come in three varieties (unsurprising, given the existence of the M3 Pro and M3 Max chips). He claims that the new chips will be offered across all Mac products, including the Mac Studio and Mac Pro.
The codenames Donan, Brava, and Hidra have been assigned to the three varieties of M4 according to Gurman’s unnamed sources. We also have a potential refresh schedule that suggests the iMac, MacBook Pros, and Mac Mini will be released first with the new chips but no significant design changes, followed by the MacBook Air and Mac Studio later this year. The Mac Pro may have to wait for 2025 for a refresh, but if these rumors are true that’s still a pretty tight turnaround for Apple to meet.
Perhaps a bit more time?
If this is true and Apple is hammering out the kinks before dropping the M4 bomb on us, it would mean a very short life cycle for the M3 chip, considering that the chip only launched with new iMac and MacBook Pro models in October 2023. The M3 MacBook Air launched just last month, so some users might end up frustrated that Apple is forging ahead so soon.
While it’s always exciting to see what Apple has in store for us, it does seem like the tech giant is desperate to catch up to the competition to produce AI-focused chips and computers. We’re all familiar with Apple’s strategy of ‘watching and waiting’ rather than diving right into new emergent tech (like letting the VR industry flounder for years before revealing the Apple Vision Pro), so it’s not surprising that the MacBook maker would be late to the AI party. It seems like the wait is over, however, and Apple is ready to show off what its new chip can do.
As for what a newfound focus on hardware-driven AI will look like, that’s anyone’s guess - Gurman hasn’t provided any in-depth details about the M4 chip’s microarchitecture, but it seems likely that M4 will feature a neural processing unit (NPU). That’s a dedicated processor for handling AI-related workloads, which helps reduce the strain on the chip’s CPU and GPU. Apple’s key competitors like Intel and AMD (and most recently Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chip) are all sporting shiny new NPUs, so it makes sense that Apple would want to catch up.
Again, we have no real confirmation that any of this is true, even if Gurman is a very reliable source of information. So we suggest you don’t get your hopes up too soon. Personally, I hope it isn’t true. Not to sound like a tree-hugging spoilsport, but we just got new devices - why should we waste precious resources to shell out more so soon after the arrival of the M3 chips?
I understand the need for technology to progress - it's inevitable. I just hope we get a little more time with what we have, so we can actually grow to appreciate it.
