Yesterday, we explained why you should get excited about Apple’s “Let loose” event that will happen in less than a week. The biggest surprise that took the internet by storm was that the upcoming iPad Pro would introduce the M4 chip, skipping the M3 chip altogether as we previously expected. We have a huge reasonable explanation for why this claim is more likely to be true.
You may not know this, but Apple has been using the unified Mac model identifier for all of its Macs that were introduced since 2022. Furthermore, every number represents which generation of the M-series chip the Mac model users. Here’s what the Mac identifiers represent for Macs from 2022 and later:
- Mac13,x – Mac Studio with M1 Max / M1 Ultra (the Mac Studio was the only Mac introduced in 2022 with an M1-class chip; the rest of the M1-class Macs used their own respective Mac identifiers)
- Mac14,x – All Mac models with an M2-class chip (M2/Pro/Max/Ultra)
- Mac15,x – All Mac models with an M3-class chip (M3/Pro/Max)
Interestingly, the iPad’s model identifier follows the same pattern/scheme as the Mac’s counterpart based on the generation of Apple Silicon that any iPad uses. So if we take a look at all the iPad models with an M-series chip, we’ll see that the number matches the corresponding number for the Mac’s model identifier based on the generation of Apple Silicon:
- iPad13,x – includes iPad models with the M1 chip (2022 iPad Air / 2021 iPad Pro)
- iPad14,x – includes iPad models with the M2 chip (2022 iPad Pro)
An iPad with an M3 chip hasn’t existed; however, 9to5Mac previously found a few new references for the following unreleased iPad models in the iPadOS 17.5 beta:
- iPad16,3
- iPad16,4
- iPad16,5
- iPad16,6
If we follow that pattern based on Apple’s model identifiers, an iPad Pro with the M3 chip would have the model identifier “iPad15,x”, but since the unreleased models feature “iPad16,x,” and Apple hasn’t introduced any Macs with “Mac16,x,” this suggests that the next iPad Pro will feature an unreleased chip. In other words, the M4 chip will appear on the iPad Pro first before any Macs that Apple will announce.
This will be part of Apple’s huge marketing strategy by introducing its next generation of Apple Silicon on an iPad first, but this time, it will promote the iPad Pro as “the best tablet for AI” as the M4 chip is expected to feature significant performance improvements related to AI thanks to the upgraded Neural Engine.
Apple’s “Let loose” event will go live on May 7 at 7 am PT. You can watch the live stream on Apple’s website or its YouTube channel.
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