Apple Event Rumors: iPad Pro With M4 Chip and New Apple Pencil With Haptic Feedback

[Delivered]

Skipping a gen for the chip while going OLED + redesign? Too many upgrades in one update. Does not sound like Apple.

Wellllll they did do that with 2021 mbp14in and 16in

 

[Delivered]

Has Apple ever released its fastest chip first in the iPads before?

lol if you count the 2018 iPad with the A12x which was apples fastest chip at the time and remained so until the 12z and later the m1.

 

[Delivered]

Exactly , so hard to believe...but Mark G says that are chances and not that "he was told" so careful on his speech

Good point. I’m going to guess m3.

 

[roundski]

releasing an M4 will kill M3 mac sales

 

[boak]

that pencil, oled ipads will be a true thing and he called it first...anything? he told us about an Apple helicopter? please

Why are you so defensive when it comes to Gurman? You defend him all the time in so many threads 😂

 

[mr_jomo]

Exactly , so hard to believe...but Mark G says that are chances and not that "he was told" so careful on his speech

From the Bloomberg newsletter in question:

"I’m hearing there is a strong possibility that the chip in the new iPad Pro will be the M4, not the M3." (emphasis mine)

It's probably 50/50 it's his own voice he's 'hearing' though 🤣

 

[dsusanj]

Has Apple ever released its fastest chip first in the iPads before?

Yes. For example, A5 debuted on the iPad 2 six months before powering the iPhone 4S.

 

[Red_Bran_Porridge]

I strongly believe it's a cost thing. M3 is on TSMC's N3B node, which is unoptimized and more expensive to produce chips on. Apple will move to N3E (the optimized node) as soon as they can, due to the cost benefits. Moving nodes means a new iteration of the chip (they wouldn't move to a new node and still call it M3), hence why M4 seems so near.

That said, I was expecting it more in the fall than in the spring, but who knows.

I remember hearing about that when M3 rumours started coming out. I believe it's a bit similar to how M1 and M2 used an unoptimised and optimised 5nm process.

 

[dsusanj]

No.

Not true, there's an early precedent – see A5.

 

[WU27f1xcCs]

The aiPad

 

[djsmith83]

Where the iPad MINI!!!!???

 

[erikkfi]

Oh? Now Gurman believes it’s likely we see an M4 powering the next iPad Pro? After we’ve been discussing it for well over a week…

I’d be shocked if Gurman was trawling Internet forums for lay speculation so that he’d have material for his newsletter. After all, another forum post on MR speculates that the matte display option might be e-ink (😆). I think Gurman has his own sources.

 

[Alex Cai]

Of course, if the vibration is made controllable by apps, it could find a whole lot of other uses…

Accessory makers:

 

[scrapesleon]

M3 is officially old now thanks Apple

 

[brofkand]

Tick, tock tock tock seems to be Apple's Silicon cadence. Why are we giving Apple a pass but we lambasted Intel for the same?

 

[Alex Cai]

Has Apple ever released its fastest chip first in the iPads before?

iPad Air 4 2020 with A14

 

[m.x]

I'm sort of curious what Apple's motives are for their chip skipping between devices. I know the obvious answer is just because M1 -> M2 for the iMac was not a particularly large upgrade while M1 -> M3 was. I wonder what they're thinking over in Cupertino.

Maybe they put the M4 in it so they can sell the iPad Pro longer. If they want to sell it for 18 months, the next one could come in Oct/Nov '25. Then maybe the M5 is already out and it would look strange on paper if the iPad Pro would still be on an M3.

 

[EugW]

I just want OLED. 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[ElectricPotato]

I wonder what they're thinking over in Cupertino.

Stock options. Financial services. Streaming services.

 

[person123]

This guy lost all my trust after his iPad debacle smh

 

[apcore]

For me, lately, the struggle with my iPad Pro is finding a good, reliable, non-subscription based media player. I use VLC, nPlayer, and more recently I purchased OPlayer, and none of them have a reliable UI when using it on an external monitor while reading files from an external hard drive. The UI glitches, or doesn’t work well between the iPad and the external monitor.

Any suggestion is welcome.

Infuse is a great media player with active development and a lifetime option.

Infuse 8 - An Elegant Video Player

Ignite your video content with Infuse – the beautiful way to watch almost any video format on your iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, and Vision. Free download!

firecore.com

 

[magicvash]

I’ve honestly tried the iPad as a laptop replacement thing and Keynote on the iPad is NOT a suitable option. Nowhere near as easy to create or edit presentations. The macOS version is an order of magnitude so much easier to use - especially to drag and drop images/screenshots into presentations. I would love to go iPad for mobile work but macOS is a better OS than iPadOS for many things.

 

[person123]

Really

Oh? Now Gurman believes it’s likely we see an M4 powering the next iPad Pro? After we’ve been discussing it for well over a week…

Really? This is the first I’ve heard of it and first rumor I’ve seen

 

[TracerAnalog]

I would be extremely surprised if Apple indeed premiered the M4 chip in the iPad Pro. Pleasantry surprised for sure, but it sounds too good to be true. OLED + next gen CPU? What’s next, dual boot OS?

 

[Populus]

releasing an M4 will kill M3 mac sales

That was my thought as well. However, now I’m not so convinced. If they market it appropriately, a new chip in the iPad Pro lineup wouldn’t necessarily kill Mac sales, because they are different enough products.

At the same time, having a more AI capable device out there allows them to demonstrate M4 exclusive AI features at WWDC… that would eventually come to the Mac lineup. Maybe macOS 15 isn’t as AI centered as iOS/iPadOS 18, and this would be a good reason to update macs later this year.