Apple’s M4 MacBooks are coming sooner than you think, with a big focus on AI

I get it. You might have purchased one of the M3 MacBook Air models that Apple launched in early March. The next-gen M4 chip upgrade isn’t even on your mind. Or you might have bought one of the M3 MacBook Pro variants that Apple launched a few months ago and won’t even need an upgrade for several years.

But if Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman information is accurate, and it usually is, Apple will start the rollout of its M4 Macs a lot sooner than we thought. Gurman claims that Apple wants to put the Macs on a one-year upgrade cycle for the chip, just like it does with the iPhone. Also, the M4’s big focus will be on-device AI.

Both of these claims make sense in the current context. It’s not surprising to hear that the first Macs running on the M3 chips could drop as soon as late 2024.

Gurman detailed the M4 Macs in his PowerOn newsletter over the weekend.

He said that Apple is nearing production of the M4 chips, which will come in three versions: “a base chip dubbed Donan; higher-end versions codenamed Brava that will replace the M3 Pro and M3 Max; and an M4 Ultra dubbed Hidra.” Interestingly, there’s no new M3 Ultra at the time of this writing. We might never get one, though Gurman says Apple had developed one.