MacBook Pro Launch Imminent But MacBook Air Laptops Face Delay

Following the release of the iPhone 16 family, the Apple community is getting ready to welcome the first M4-powered MacBook Pro laptops. According to the latest reports, they don’t have long to wait.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman notes that the launch of the new macOS hardware is imminent, with both online videos and a hands-on experience at Apple’s HQ coming soon. Apple tends to hold product launches on a Tuesday. In previous years it has used Halloween as a post to hang the new digital coats on.

Which points to next Tuesday, October 29th, as the big day.

Apple’s AI Focus

The laptops will be the first to use the latest Apple Silicon chipsets. It won’t be the debut—Tim Cook and his team decided to launch the M4 in May in a new iPad Pro. Nevertheless, this will be the first time professionally focused macOS users can get their hands on the latest Apple Silicon.

The M4 chipset brings with it hardware to support generative AI. Cook has consistently placed the awkwardly backronymed Apple Intelligence suite of AI tools at the heart of the marketing campaign for the iPhone and is expected to carry on with a similar story around the new Macbook Pro laptops. It’s a risky choice, given that only a small subset of Apple Intelligence tools make up the first wave of AI tools to be released in November.

The MacBook Pro laptops will be Apple Intelligence-ready; it’s just that Apple Intelligence isn’t ready yet.

Consumers Miss Out On MacBook Air

Neither will the MacBook Air be launched. The consumer-focused macOS laptops are not expected to launch until March 2025 (As an aside, March is rapidly becoming a pivotal moment for Apple; the final apps in the Apple Intelligence suite are expected late in Q1, as is an updated iPhone SE).

Until then, anyone looking to immediately buy a new MacBook will have to choose either the more expensive M4 MacBook Pro model, or buy an older M3 MacBook Air.

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