Apple’s M4 Chip May Launch First on New OLED iPad Pro

On May 7, Apple will be holding an iPad event where we should see new iPad Pros with OLED displays, a bigger 12.9-inch iPad Air, and new iPad accessories. And after Apple released no new iPads in 2023, the upgrades to the iPad Pro could be bigger than expected.

In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is reporting that the new iPad Pros may skip Apple’s latest M3 chip and go straight to the M4. If accurate, this would be the first time a new Apple M-series chip makes its debut on an iPad instead of a Mac.

“I’m hearing there is a strong possibility that the chip in the new iPad Pro will be the M4, not the M3,” Gurman wrote. “Better yet, I believe Apple will position the tablet as its first truly AI-powered device — and that it will tout each new product from then on as an AI device. This, of course, is all in response to the AI craze that has swept the tech industry over the last couple years.”

Apple has indeed been caught off guard by the very fast development of ChatGPT and other generative AI apps. The company is reportedly in talks with Google as well as OpenAI to integrate cloud-based AI features on its devices.

The iPhone and iPad maker is also said to be developing its own generative AI tech that will leverage the neural processing units (NPUs) on its M-series chips. Gurman said about Apple’s M4 chip that “a new neural engine will pave the way for fresh AI capabilities.”

If Apple will really need a “killer app” to stop the decline of iPad sales, the company may want to keep its full AI plans close to its chest until its WWDC developer conference kicks off in June. Another notable news from Gurman’s latest newsletter is that iPadOS 18 will finally add a native calculator app to the iPad. Apple previously waited for the release of iPadOS 16 in 2022 to bring a native Weather app to iPad users.