When will the M4 Mac Studio and M4 Mac Pro be released?

A new report detailing the migration of Apple's Mac line to M4 is out, and it doubles-down on previous rumors that it's going to take a bit longer than a year for a Mac Studio or Mac Pro upgrade.

The Mac Studio and Mac Pro got their most recent refreshes at the 2023 WWDC. Fans of Apple's Pro desktops may be in for a wait if they want a M4 version.

In the weekly Power On newsletter from Bloomberg, there are a few more details. Specifically, the Pro-level Macs aren't expected until the tail-end of the M4 migration process.

And, that tail-end is still expected to take until the second half of 2025.

This is not the first time that this has been said. The most recent iteration of the schedule was in May, but it's been fairly consistent for about six months.

Apple's M3 chip debuted with Pro and Max versions out of the gate, at the October 2023 MacBook event. The M1 chip started at the base of the line, and worked their ways up to Pro, Max, and Ultra.

It took over a year for M1 to get an Ultra variant. The M1 Ultra debuted in the refreshed Mac Pro and then-new Mac Studio.

Apple's M1 and M2 chips in Mac Pro and Mac Studio had clear interconnects, so a chip like the Ultra was a clear possibility relatively early. The M3 does not have this obvious interconnect, so it's possible Apple had this road map in mind all along.

It's also not the first time a Mac has skipped a generation. The iMac went from M1 to M3 processor, for instance.

Relatively speaking, Apple does not sell that many Mac Studio or Mac Pro units. The company's flagships remain the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro lines — and it's not close.

23 Comments

bradmacpro 125 comments · 20 Years

About 5 months ago

Well that rather sucks if I may be so blunt. The Mac Studio with M2 Max is looking to be slower than a M4 based MacBook at this point.

Edgecrusherr 28 comments · 2 Years

Apple is killing me on these slow, late, or never refreshes on higher-end desktops. I was stuck on a Mac Pro 2010 until 2022, because the 2013. Mac Pro didn’t meet my needs for expansion and ports, then I was waiting on used 2019 Mac Pro deal, when they moved to ARM, then I could wait any longer for the ARM Mac Pro, so I had to settle for a Studio. I was hoping to get an M2 Mac Pro 2nd hand after an M3 or M4 refresh, but It’s looking like I’m Going to be stuck on a Mac Studio until at least 2026 or 2027.

blastdoor 3594 comments · 15 Years

Relatively speaking, Apple does not sell that many Mac Studio or Mac Pro units.

I've been hoping that ACDC would mean more Ultra-class chips would be made, providing better economies of scale for investing in these high end chips than if these chips only showed up in desktop Macs. I hoped this would then translate into more frequent updates of the desktop lineup.

Now we know ACDC really does exist, but so far there's no evidence that it benefits the Mac desktop (although not much time has passed, so we don't know much yet).

But if ACDC does not benefit the Mac desktop, then two possible reasons occur to me:

1. Maybe ACDC uses totally bespoke chips, not Ultra-class chips, and so there is no economies of scale that benefits the Mac desktop.
2. Maybe the demand for Ultra-class chips for Apple's data centers is so great that it's crowding out the Mac desktop, at least in the short to medium run (but then maybe the economies of scale benefits will kick in longer term).

danox 3442 comments · 11 Years

The height of stupidity on Apples part if this happens. With Microsoft and Qualcomm currently flopping with Arm right now and Intel and AMD listing at sea the time to strike is now.

Microsoft is currently doing a Recall on a brain dead feature while Google and OpenAI have been reduced by Apple into just a possible add on to the features included in the Apple Intelligence ecosystem. The time is now.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Qualcomm-Snapdragon-X-Elite-Analysis-More-efficient-than-AMD-Intel-but-Apple-stays-ahead.850221.0.html

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-M4-SoC-analysis-AMD-Intel-and-Qualcomm-currently-don-t-stand-a-chance.839332.0.html

keithw 156 comments · 20 Years

Another bone-headed move by Apple if true! Who in their right mind would buy an M2 Studio at this point? There will be no M3 Studio. I don’t want or need a high-end laptop, M3, M4, whatever. I want the I/O capability afforded by the Studio line. Let’s get the M4 Studio line out sooner than later!