Hardware was noticeably absent from WWDC this year, but that doesn’t mean Apple won’t release new Macs. According to display analyst Ross Young, there are strong indications that M4 MacBook Pro models, alongside new Mac Minis, will arrive in the fourth quarter. Here’s what we know.
WWDC 2024 was all about AI – in disguise
Compared to Google, Meta and Microsoft, Apple seems to have been surprised by the rise of AI in recent years. While at times the company has simply waited for trends and then introduced features with their own spin on them, it seems the tidal wave of generative AI has completely blindsided them.
So expectations were sky high at WWDC 2024. Apple introduced iOS 18, macOS 16 (called Sequoia) and updates to the operating systems for Apple Watches, iPads and their VR production, Apple Vision Pro. To the surprise of many analysts, Apple rarely mentioned AI, and when it did, they renamed it Apple Intelligence.
In both iOS 18 and macOS 16, Apple Intelligence will introduce features such as text summaries, automated replies, image generation, and even text generation and exploration via GPT-4o, with Apple working with OpenAI. Shortly before WWDC 2024, Apple introduced the new iPad Pro, both with an OLED display and their new line of CPUs, M4. That makes it very likely that we will see M4 MacBook Pro models soon!
M4 Macbook Pro – What we can expect
Since Apple had only recently upgraded its range of professional laptops to the latest generation of Apple Silicon CPUs M3, it was unlikely that Apple would introduce M4 MacBook Pro models at WWDC. But both Marc Gurman, Bloomberg analyst and one of the most trusted sources on everything Apple leaks, and display analyst Ross Young believe there will be M4 MacBook Pro models this year.
While we only know of the M4 CPU in the latest iPad Pro, there’s enough evidence from previous generations to speculate about the upcoming models. Compared to M3, the base model M4 has nine CPU cores instead of eight CPU cores and ten GPU cores instead of eight GPU cores.
M4 MacBook Pro models are expected to arrive in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes, with M4 and M4 Pro CPUs in the former and M4 Pro and M4 Max CPUs in the latter. The M4 Pro will likely come with up to 14 CPU cores depending on the Macbook model, while the M4 Max will likely have up to 18 CPU cores. However, what is most interesting for music producers is the number of performance cores for each model. Additionally, the maximum RAM will likely increase to 48 GB for Pro and possibly 256 GB for M4 Max.
When will the M4 MacBook Pro models arrive?
While Gurman stated a while ago that Apple will likely release the M4 MacBook Pro and Mac Mini models this year, display analyst Ross Young recently issued a tweet to subscribers that limits this to the fourth quarter. Young claims that panel deliveries for both the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models are expected in early Q3 2024. That would make a Q4 release, usually in October, for new Apple products very likely!
How Apple will incorporate AI features into its news models remains to be seen. However, what’s far more important for music producers, besides the performance cores, is whether the next version of macOS can finally be one that doesn’t break plugins. Because on this front, Apple’s recent track record isn’t the best.
More about the new Apple laptops
