Apple's M4 plans could make the latest MacBooks outdated already

(Image credit: Apple)

Last week, we reported on famed Apple leaker Mark Gurman’s prediction that an M4 Mac refresh could be expected sometime this year. Gurman suggested that the in-house silicon is nearing the production stage, and could launch later this year. Now, Gurman has shared a roadmap of exactly when to expect M4 refreshes of the Apple Mac lineup.

If you’re thinking it’s a little soon for a whole new chip and line refresh, you’d be right. The M3 chip was officially announced just last October at Apple’s Scary Fast event, and we’ve literally only just seen a new M3 MacBook Air model. If the rumor is true, the entire Mac lineup will be receiving a new chip generation together for the first time.

So, what does the timeline look like? Below, you can see Gurman’s (very specific) list of predictions.

Screenshot of timeline — (Image credit: Screenshot via Bloomberg)

A busy year ahead for Apple

While Gurman is well known for being a reliable leaker, until we get official word from Apple we should take this list with a pinch of salt. That being said, it’s an exciting lineup, starting with brand new MacBook Pros and a refresh of the iMac fitted with the M4 chip. Hopefully, the new iMac is another chance for Apple to finally add more colors to the iMac range.

2025 looks littered with exciting refreshes as well, with Gurman hinting at the M4 Ultra chip being introduced through the Mac Pro - a surprise given that we haven’t even seen an M3 Ultra yet. As we said when the news of the rumored refresh, the move to do a very quick turnaround and have a sweeping hardware update like this seems like a desperate attempt to catch up to the competition in the sphere of AI-focused chips and computers.

Apple is known to ‘watch and wait’ when it comes to diving into new technology, and it seems like the company is ready to introduce its take on AI-focused consumer computing. While the company has been rocking its ‘Neural Engine’ tech for AI workloads all the way back to the A11 Bionic chip in the iPhone 8, the recent AI explosion and the prevalence of neural processing units means that Apple is likely keen to give its AI tech a boost - although it definitely runs the risk of upsetting anyone who recently purchased an M3 Mac product…

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Muskaan is TechRadar’s UK-based Computing writer. She has always been a passionate writer and has had her creative work published in several literary journals and magazines. Her debut into the writing world was a poem published in The Times of Zambia, on the subject of sunflowers and the insignificance of human existence in comparison. Growing up in Zambia, Muskaan was fascinated with technology, especially computers, and she's joined TechRadar to write about the latest GPUs, laptops and recently anything AI related. If you've got questions, moral concerns or just an interest in anything ChatGPT or general AI, you're in the right place. Muskaan also somehow managed to install a game on her work MacBook's Touch Bar, without the IT department finding out (yet).