A new rumor claims that the forthcoming iPad Pro, scheduled to debut on May 7, could be the first Apple product with the next-generation M4 chip powering it.
It seems unlikely that the iPad Pro would skip the M3 chip outright, or that it would appear in an iPad ahead of any Mac. However, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman claims in his Sunday newsletter there is “a strong possibility” that it will have the M4 on board.
He suggests that an iPad Pro debut of the M4 chip could set the stage for more M4-based Macs and A18-based iPhone models. If the M4 iPad Pro debut is accurate, it would be the shortest cycle of Apple Silicon updates yet, with the gap between releases being only seven months, versus about 10 from M2 to M3.