If AI-equipped Macs are coming soon, Apple’s timing could be perfect

On April 11, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said Apple is preparing to overhaul its entire Mac line with a new family of in-house processors designed to highlight artificial intelligence (AI). If so, the timing would be perfect.

A new report from Counterpoint Research predicts that 3-out-of-4 laptops sold in 2027 will be AI models with advanced GenAI capability. GenAI is a type of Artificial Intelligence that can create a wide variety of data, such as images, videos, audio, text, and 3D models. 

What’s more, Counterpoint thinks that almost half a billion AI laptop PCs will be sold during the 2023-2027 period, with AI PCs reviving the replacement demand.

“Apple could be the dark horse when it comes to adding GenAI capability in the Macs,” according to Counterpoint Research Associate Director Mohit Agrawai. The company can use its end-to-end vertical approach to leverage its self-designed Arm-based M series of advanced powerful processors, heavily optimized MacOS, newly designed LLM and powerful GenAI application ecosystem.”

But back to Apple and the Mac: Gurman says that Apple, which released its first Macs with M3 chips five months ago, is already nearing production of the next generation — the M4 processor — that will come in at least three main varieties, and Apple is looking to update every Mac model with it.

According to his report, the iMac, low-end 14-inch MacBook Pro, high-end 14-inch MacBook Pro, 16-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini machines will be updated with M4 chips first, followed by the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models in spring 2025, the Mac Studio in mid-2025, and the Mac Pro later in 2025.