Those Macs you’ve been waiting for won’t arrive until 2025

Apple recently introduced a iPad Pro with several major new features. In addition to the finesse and the new OLED screen, we noticed the integration of a new M4 chip. Only six months after the announcement of the M3 chip, Apple surprises with this timing and inaugurates this new chip in its tablet. A remarkable introduction that completely propels the Cupertino company into the era of artificial intelligence.

AI shakes up Apple’s plans, and its schedule

This new generation of Apple Silicon chips retains the 3-nanometer etching technology from TSMC, but provides more power and better energy efficiency. Its first launch is motivated by Apple’s desire to participate in the battle of AI, and more specifically local AI.

The subject is not completely new at Apple, but the term “AI” has long been taboo. During the keynotes, the Californian company preferred the notions of “proactivity” or even “machine learning”. Market developments force the company to talk about artificial intelligence and to highlight the merits of the Neural Engine, a component present on the brand’s devices for years. Often referred to as an “AI accelerator”, the M4 chip’s NPU enters a new dimension.

It allows you to work with AI locally, that is, without using the Internet. The iPad Pro is the first Apple product to take the plunge, but it inevitably disrupts Apple’s plans. U Mac Studio and Mac Pro will not be the next to make this transition, if Mark Gurman is to be believed. The highly respected Bloomberg journalist assures that these two workstations will not be upgraded to the M4 chip until the middle of next year.

Mac Pro and Mac Studio will wait until 2024 to equip the M4 chip

A last-minute change since Apple planned to launch a Mac Pro with a new M3 Ultra chip from the middle of this year. As last year, it was expected that a separate machine in the Apple catalog will complete the transition to a new generation of chips. Finally, the arrival of the M4 chip postpones the update of the Mac Studio and Mac Pro for a year.

Apple-branded professional workstations will also be served last. Still according to the same source, Apple plans to renew its entire range before the end of 2024, with the exception of the MacBook Air. Recently updated, the ultraportable general public will wait until spring 2025 to be updated. An ultimately relevant choice since the Mac Studio and Mac Pro are not Apple’s best-selling machines every year. Expensive, they meet the specific needs of professional users.

The iPad Pro M4 is (sometimes) more powerful than a Mac Studio M2 Ultra

With this schedule disrupted, Apple finds itself in a funny situation to say the least. Its latest tablet equipped with the M4 chip will be more powerful than a Mac Studio or Mac Pro for some tasks, as the site specifies. The Virgin. Indeed, Geekbench benchmark results show that the iPad Pro M4 performs about 25% better than a Mac Studio M2 Ultra.

As the graph shows, it is worth noting that this happens only in special situations: when the chip uses only one core. It should also be noted that the A17 Pro chip in the iPhone 17 Pro is also able to beat the M2 Ultra in terms of single-core processor power. In fact, an M2 Ultra will make a difference with its many cores and this is the main thing for users. Also, a Mac Studio or a Mac Pro have a radically different design in terms of RAM, cooling, connectivity and even OS.