Charles Martin
A new rumor claims that the forthcoming iPad Pro, scheduled to debut on May 7, could be the first Apple product with the next-generation M4 chip powering it.
It seems unlikely that the iPad Pro would skip the M3 chip outright, or that it would appear in an iPad ahead of any Mac. However, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman claims in his Sunday newsletter there is "a strong possibility" that it will have the M4 on board.
He added in his Power On newsletter that he believes Apple will market the pro tablet as "its first truly AI-powered device."
The iPad Pro is also expected to gain an OLED display, which could help make the device thinner than previous models. Apple is also said to be planning to reposition the FaceTime front camera, and release redesigned accessories including a new Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil.
He suggests that an iPad Pro debut of the M4 chip could set the stage for more M4-based Macs and A18-based iPhone models. If the M4 iPad Pro debut is accurate, it would be the shortest cycle of Apple Silicon updates yet, with the gap between releases being only seven months, versus about 10 from M2 to M3.
An expanded Neural Engine and greater machine learning or AI capabilities in forthcoming products are expected to be a major part of this June's Worldwide Developer Conference. That event will be held on June 10-14th, and again be mostly online with a special in-person event at Apple Park.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
40 Comments
This has been rumoured previously and if true might mean we get Mac Mini & Mac Studio M4 sooner than some are predicting?
Either way, the new large iPad Pro & new Pencil are likely going to perform brilliantly with the upcoming ZBrush for iPad 😁
I suppose any chance of the iPad mini getting the M4 is nonexistent..?
Qualcomm and Microsoft will debut Snapdragon X Elite Windows laptops in May that they claim match the specs of a base model M3. I suspect Apple wants to release a faster iPad before then to take a bit of wind from their sails.
It doesn't make sense to ship any AI product before WWDC. There is no new iPadOS/AI to make use of that new AI power.
Even worse for Air as it will be obsolete on arrival.
Launching M4 now will make MBA M3 "the last student computer without AI". It is, but Apple shouldn't put back-to-school sales at risk.
Same for iPhone. We're 4-5 months from next gen. No way that Apple will go full Osborne and kill all shipping products now without new products.
WWDC should be XCode AI + frameworks using very limited memory + the message that everything is possible with 18 TOPS and 6-8 GB as that is A16/M3.
A18/A18 Pro/M4 can deliver a new level of performance but iPhone has to be first.