So Apple’s WWDC 2024 event is just a few hours away, and the rumor mill is running at full speed with all kinds of speculation about what could be announced.
And for once, I really don’t care.
Look, I think the best thing Apple could do at WWDC is announce an M4 MacBook Air – but that’s probably not going to happen, as leaks suggest Apple won’t have any hardware to show off. It wouldn’t be entirely shocking – WWDC is a developer-focused event, after all, so we’ll likely see more software than hardware – but Apple has historically used the event to launch new products, like the Apple Vision Pro and 15- inch MacBook Air shown at last year’s event.
That’s why I initially hoped we’d see the powerful new M4 chip appear in a new MacBook at this year’s WWDC, but Apple dashed that hope by unveiling the M4 sooner than I expected – and in a new iPad Pro, not. fewer.
Make it logical, Apple
I’m going to be honest here, Tim Cook: releasing the M4 chip in an iPad like this was really a surprise mind blow movement. I thought it was strange enough that Apple unveiled the M3 chip in the new iMac M3 and MacBook Pro M3 models last year, but put the Mac aside entirely to launch your new chip in a tablet? You completely lost me there.
Now it might be fair to say that the iPad Pro has earned some time in the spotlight. After all, sales statistics from FourWeekMBA indicate that Apple makes roughly the same amount of money on its iPad sales as it does on Mac products. But the MacBook Air is an essential flagship, and bypassing it in favor of a tablet could undermine public reception of the M4 chip. After all, the M4 simply doesn’t perform as well in an ultra-thin tablet as it does in a real laptop – even if it’s a passively cooled tablet like the Air. That was the case with the MacBook Air M2 and the iPad Pro (2022), which both use the same M2 chip.
Leaks from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and analysis from marketing firm Canalys previously suggested we might not see an M4 MacBook until 2025. Canalys even predicted that the M4 itself wouldn’t be released until next year, so the M4 iPad Pro was a total surprise.
More M4?
Apple calls the MacBook Air “the world’s best-selling laptop,” so you might reasonably expect the Mac maker to want to push its flagship macOS product with a shiny new chip — but Apple has shot itself in the foot by making the M4 so shortly after the M3 was announced. MacBook Air was released late last year. As Ny Breaking writer Muskaan Saxena recently noted, the M4 could already make M3 MacBooks obsolete.
Why would I buy an M3 MacBook, knowing that M4 models are already on the way? That’s hard to argue – and the M4 Air possibly not coming to market until 2025 could frustrate some Mac fans if the M4 chip is already wandering wild in the new iPad. Apple is in a catch-22 situation: no new M4 products at WWDC will lead to disappointment, but a shocking revelation would likely ruin Apple’s chances of moving the remaining M3 Mac stock.
When Apple turns around later today and unveils M4 MacBooks at the WWDC showcase, I’ll sit down and eat my humble pie (you can yell at me on Twitter if you want). But I doubt it will happen; we’ll probably have to wait a while, and no amount of new macOS 15 features will get me excited for this year’s event.