Back in October 2023, Apple introduced the latest series of M3 chips which provide substantial performance and efficiency improvements on many of Apple’s Macs, especially with hardware-accelerated graphics features. We haven’t seen any new iPads at all last year as the iPad Pro was last updated in October 2022 with the M2 chip. With that said, we initially expected the next iPad Pro to feature the M3 chip; however, Mark Gurman came out with another surprise for us in his weekly Powered On newsletter as he now expects the next iPad Pro to feature the upcoming M4 chip, skipping the M3 chip altogether.
Previously, for both the M1 and M2 chip, Apple introduced several Mac models with that chip, and it waited a few months until it debuted the iPad Pro with the same chip. If this report turns out to be true, this means that the next generation of the M-series chip will debut on the iPad Pro first before any of Apple’s upcoming Macs, marking a significant change in the company’s rollout of products.
Gurman expects the upcoming M4 chip to feature an upgraded Neural Engine that will push AI capabilities further. Since this year’s WWDC will be expected to largely focus on AI, this would make sense for Apple to debut the M4 chip ahead of the annual conference by bringing it to the iPad Pro first and showcasing the new AI-related hardware capabilities before the company introduces the upcoming AI-related software features the following month at WWDC. Just like Apple has marketed the MacBook Air with the M3 chip as “the best AI laptop for everyone,” the company is expected to do the same with the upcoming iPad Pro.
We’re just over one week until Apple’s “Let loose” event, which will go live on May 7 at 7 am PT. You can watch the live stream on Apple’s website or on its YouTube channel.
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