As Apple Turns 50, the Mac Is Poised for Reinvention
Federico Orlandi
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It’s been a quiet year for Macs, but 2026 could mark a turning point as Apple prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
We’re not sure if Apple is deliberately holding any Macs back, but it’s probably a bit telling that this fall’s only significant Mac release was a base M5 MacBook Pro. That stands in stark contrast to the past two years, when it not only unveiled the entire MacBook Pro family in one fell swoop, but also added new iMacs and even a Mac mini into the mix.
That’s not to say that 2025 was devoid of any other Macs. The earlier part of the year saw the release of Apple’s expected M4 MacBook Air refresh and a new Mac Studio that surprised us with an M3 Ultra chip in its highest-end configuration. Since the M4 Max chip lacked the “UltraFusion” connector — the bridge used to link two Max chips into an Ultra configuration — the older M3 Ultra became the more powerful option, with the M4 Max playing second fiddle.
By contrast, this fall’s single MacBook Pro harkens back to the 2020 debut of Apple silicon, when the M1 chip arrived in an old-style 13-inch MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini. Still, this time we only got one of those, with non-Macs — the iPad Pro and Vision Pro — rounding out the M5 debut.
Even that MacBook was a bit of a surprise, as reports over the summer suggested Apple was planning on delaying its next MacBook Pro launch into early 2026 — not because they weren’t ready, but to level out its revenue stream by not releasing everything at once, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.
In the end, Gurman was half right, although not necessarily about Apple’s reasons. The more powerful M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook models won’t arrive until early 2026, but recent reports suggest that this is mostly because Apple doesn’t have the higher-end silicon ready yet.
In his recent Power On newsletter, Gurman echoes that sentiment while also laying out what he believes are Apple’s plans for its 2026 Mac lineup. Here’s the rundown.
M5 Pro and Max MacBook Pro Models
Nobody has ventured a guess as to when the higher-end MacBooks will arrive, but it feels like a safe bet that Apple will lead with them. While it’s rare for Apple to unveil new products before March, it’s not unprecedented; the M2 Pro/Max models debuted in January 2023, so a similar timeframe isn’t out of the question here.
The souped-up MacBook Pro models are expected to retain the same design, much like the M5 MacBook Pro did over its M4 predecessor. The M5 Pro and M5 Max chips will deliver similar performance gains over their M4 counterparts, but won’t likely bring about any significant changes beyond that.
It’s a more open question whether Apple might use the opportunity to add its new N1 wireless chip to the advanced models. Apple introduced this chip with the iPhone lineup in September and brought it to the M5 iPad Pro last month, but conspicuously left it out of the MacBook. We’re not counting on it appearing in the Pro/Max models, but it’s also too early to rule it out.
The M5 MacBook Air
Although Apple changed the script for the MacBook Pro this year, the MacBook Air is a much more straightforward lineup, and it’s likely the company will continue its spring cadence, with new M5 MacBook Air models arriving in early to mid-March.
Like the MacBook Pro, these aren’t expected to include any significant design changes. Since the M5 chip has already been unveiled in the MacBook Pro, we pretty much know what to expect from the MacBook Air: a spec-bump refresh in the familiar design.
M5 Pro Mac mini
Gurman says we can also expect Apple to give the Mac mini the M5 treatment, and if the company follows tradition, that means we should see both M5 and M5 Pro models.
This is likely also one of the reasons Apple held off on unveiling the Mac mini this fall. The base 14-inch MacBook Pro is popular enough to debut on its own, but it would be odd for the company to release two Mac mini models several months apart, and even if the M5 Pro chip is ready to go, it’s highly unlikely Apple would lead with it in the Mac mini.
An M5 Ultra Mac Studio
After going nearly two years between its last update, Apple plans to bring the Mac Studio back onto an annual cycle, with a model next year that will skip the M4 Ultra that Apple never released and go straight to an M5 Ultra chip.
Little else is known about the new Mac Studio, although if the M5 Ultra follows convention, it will double the number of cores on the M5 Max. Since that chip hasn’t been unveiled either, it’s hard to say what that will look like, but for some context, since the M4 Max offers a 32-core GPU, a theoretical M4 Ultra would have offered 64 cores.
The X Factors: iMac and Mac Pro
Two Macs are conspicuously missing from Gurman’s roadmap that sit at opposite ends of the spectrum: the iMac and the Mac Pro.
Apple last refreshed the iMac with an M4 chip in late 2024, alongside its entire M4 MacBook Pro lineup. That followed a similar unveiling of the M3 model in 2023. However, it’s notable that there never was an M2 iMac, so it’s possible that Apple may also choose to skip the M5 version. According to several reports, the M3 chip utilized an early fabrication process that Apple was eager to move away from, which could explain the annual bump.
As always, the Mac Pro is a horse of an entirely different color. Over the past 20 years, Apple has released only four distinct generations of its highest-end Mac. The original 2006 model had a few CPU bumps, but the overall design remained the same throughout. It was the last Mac to join the Apple Silicon revolution, with the current M2 Ultra version arriving in June 2023, alongside a similarly-equipped Mac Studio.
While Gurman previously said he expected we’d see a new Mac Pro launch in 2025, that’s unlikely to happen at this point, and he’s made no mention of it since. Many consider the Mac Pro to be something of an anachronism next to the equally powerful Mac Studio, especially since Apple Silicon has changed the game for expandability. The old Intel versions supported a wealth of PCI cards and external GPU accelerators that are no longer compatible — or even necessary — in the M2 Ultra model.
The Real Revolution: The M6 OLED MacBook
While the M5 Pro and Max are expected in early 2026 — likely joined by an updated Mac Studio around June’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) — the real story is what’s coming at the end of the year. Gurman’s report outlines what could be an aggressive plan to clear the deck for a radically redesigned M6 MacBook Pro in late 2026.
This compressed timeline will put potential buyers in a difficult position of deciding whether to buy the minor M5 spec bump when it arrives, or wait for the M6 revolution just a few months later.
The late 2026 models, instead of being the minor spec bumps we’ve seen over the past four years, will represent something much more exciting as Apple introduces the first MacBook with an OLED display.
Several reports suggest this transition will also enable Apple to create its slimmest MacBook ever, mirroring what it did with the M4 iPad Pro last year. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also claims that Apple will use this opportunity to introduce a touchscreen to the MacBook, although it remains unclear what form this will take.
Naturally, the MacBook Pro will lead the way. Gurman says that Apple plans to go all-in on OLED eventually, with plans to add it to the MacBook Air, iPad Air, and iPad mini — the last of which could end up coming first, possibly late next year, with the MacBook Air and iPad Air following in 2027 and 2028.
As Apple enters its 50th year, the Mac’s future looks brighter, faster, and thinner than ever.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
