With the announcement of the M4 MacBook Pro family of models on October 28th and the MacBook Air lineup expected to be announced next year, Apple will have its hands full with launches. According to the latest reports, Apple is preparing to use the M5 in various products such as the iPad Pro lineup. Based on the launch of the new SoC, Apple’s newly updated ‘Pro’ tablet could arrive late next year or early 2026.
Apart from the M5 upgrade, the new 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pros are unlikely to see any major changes.
An update from Bloomberg’s Mark Garman in the latest ‘Power On’ newsletter mentions the development of the M5, which was previously rumored to have been ongoing since 2023 alongside the A19 Pro. Garman thinks Apple could announce new silicon in late 2025, and may even announce a new iPad Pro series around this time, giving his thoughts on a possible M5 launch.
As you may have noticed, the Cupertino company has adopted a different strategy with its premium tablet family this year. The 11-inch and 13-inch models will be the M4 first, followed by a new MacBook Pro with the SoC tomorrow. Based on this change alone, we would expect the new iPad Pro lineup to show off new silicon, but this may be the only major change we expect from these products. After all, Apple only introduced this series about six months ago, so it doesn’t make much sense to introduce a design overhaul in such a short period of time.
“As for when the next iPad Pro will arrive, the company has historically updated its devices about every 18 months. Given that the M5 chip is expected to arrive around the end of next year, The Pro likely won’t debut until late 2025 or early 2026. I think there will be other major changes as well, as the current design is only six months old.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo doesn’t think Apple will gravitate towards TSMC’s 2nm process for M5 next year, as he previously expected the company to move to the most advanced node in 2026 due to high wafer costs. do not have. Fortunately, the M5 will reportedly feature TSMC’s Small Outline Integrated Circuit Packaging (SoIC), making it significantly different from previous models. This packaging type, first introduced in 2018, allows chips to be stacked in a three-dimensional structure, which improves thermal management, reduces leakage current, and improves electrical performance compared to two-dimensional chip designs.
