Customers who are waiting to upgrade to the next generation of Macs may have to wait a bit longer than originally expected. According to Mark Gurman from Bloomberg in his weekly Powered On newsletter, he now expects Apple to introduce its first set of M5-based Macs early next year rather than this fall. Other rumors indicate that Apple will introduce the M5 iPad Pro in the fall instead, so if that’s the case, Apple will repeat this update cycle similar to last year when the company introduced the M4 chip on the iPad Pro before it announced the first M4 Macs several months later.
Usually, but not always, Apple refreshes its Macs in either October or November, several weeks after its annual fall event with the introduction of new iPhone models. So having an update to the MacBook Pro early next year shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. In January 2023, Apple introduced the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro/Max chips.
The exact timeframe for those updates isn’t specified, and I’m willing to guess that Apple will introduce the MacBook Pro models with the M5 series of chips in January next year, and the M5 MacBook Air will be announced several months later, possibly at WWDC 2026. This will certainly prevent the M5 MacBook Pro from cannibalizing sales of the M5 MacBook Air. Both the M3/M4 MacBook Air came out a few months later after Apple updated the MacBook Pro with the M3/M4 series of chips, respectively.
Another product that’s currently slated for release next year is the recently rumored budget-oriented MacBook with the A18 Pro chip. That MacBook will be the newest addition to the MacBook line, and it will certainly be aimed at both education and entry-level customers. You should read this recent article from us on why that MacBook would be a great idea. Anyways, I still expect that MacBook to make its debut sometime in the spring of 2026 since that’s usually when Apple would introduce several entry-level products such as the base iPad, iPhone 16e, and M4 MacBook Air.
It’s shaping up to be a very big start to the new year for Apple. Follow us on X for more Apple-related news!
