Apple is reportedly planning several product announcements for the first half of next year, including new MacBook Airs, an iPad 11, an iPhone SE 4, AirTags 2, the Mac Studio and Mac Pro M4 Ultra, and perhaps other new features. But not all of them will come out at the same time.
The scoop on the MacBook Air M4
In a publication onBloomberg’s Mark Gurman confirmed that the iPad 11, iPhone SE 4 and iPad Air 7 (already!) should be launched in spring 2024. However, he clarified that the new 13- and 15-inch MacBook Airs equipped with The M4 chip would be announced earlier than these devices, without indicating an exact date.
This suggests that the new MacBook Airs could be announced via a press release on Apple’s site around March, while the other products could be revealed at Apple’s spring event in April. This strategy would allow Apple to quickly release this minor update to the MacBook Air, a model expected and accidentally confirmed by macOS 15.2.
No design changes are expected for this update, which would be limited to the M4 chip and some minor improvements. Among the possible additions, we could find a Center Stage camera and a switch from Thunderbolt 3 ports to Thunderbolt 4. Wi-Fi 7 should be forgotten, it is not even included on the MacBook Pro M4.
Apple has already updated the MacBook Pro, iMac and Mac mini with M4 chip options in recent months. Geekbench results showed that the M4 chip offers a 25% improvement in multi-core performance over the M3 chip, while still offering more battery life, up to 22 hours depending on the MacBook model.
