Credit: Andrew Cunningham

Mac power users waiting on new high-end MacBook Pro models may have been disappointed last fall, when Apple released an M5 upgrade for the low-end 14-inch MacBook Pro without touching the M4 Pro or Max versions of the laptop. But the wait for M5 Pro and M5 Max models may be nearing its end.

The tea-leaf readers at MacRumors noticed that shipping times for a handful of high-end MacBook Pro configurations have slipped into mid-to-late February, rather than being available immediately as most Mac models are. This is often, though not always, a sign that Apple has slowed down or stopped production of an existing product in anticipation of an update.

Currently, the shipping delays affect the M4 Max versions of both the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros. If you order them today, these models will arrive sometime between February 3 and February 24, depending on the configuration you choose; many M4 Pro versions are still available for same-day shipping, though adding a nano-texture display or upgrading RAM can still add a week or so to the shipping time.

Apple could choose to launch new Pro hardware on January 28, to go with the new Creator Studio subscription it announced last week. Aimed primarily at independent content creators that make their own video, audio, and images, the Creator Studio subscription bundles Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, and enhancements for the Pages, Numbers, and Keynote apps (along with some other odds and ends) for $13 a month or $130 a year. None of these apps require a MacBook Pro, but many would benefit in some way from the additional CPU and GPU power, RAM, and storage available in Apple’s high-end laptops.

Of course, an imminent replacement isn’t the only reason why the shipping estimates for any given Mac might slip. Ongoing, AI-fueled RAM shortages could be causing problems, and Apple probably prioritizes production of the widely-used base-model M4 and M5 chips to the larger, more expensive, more complex Max models.

But the only other device in Apple’s lineup that offers the M4 Max and similar RAM configuration options is the high-end Mac Studio, which currently isn’t subject to the same shipping delays. That does imply that the delays are specific to the MacBook Pro—and one explanation for this is that the laptop is about to be replaced.

A big year for the Mac?

Virtually every Mac in Apple’s lineup is ready for an M5-series refresh. Only the low-end 14-inch MacBook Pro got an M5 upgrade last year, a relatively restrained rollout compared to the M3 and M4 generations—the M4 generation hit all the MacBook Pros, the iMac, and the Mac mini all at the same time. That’s left a lot of Macs eligible for an update at some point in 2026, including the Pros, the MacBook Airs, the Mac mini, the iMac, the Mac Studio, and the Mac Pro tower.

Apple has been known to skip Apple Silicon chip generations for some models in the past, so a handful of systems may stick with the M4 until the M6 rolls around. The MacBook Pros and Airs are reliably updated with each new chip generation, but the desktop Macs have all missed at least one chip update since the Apple Silicon era began.

Reporting from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman also suggests that the Mac Pro may be on life support—even if an M5 Ultra chip arrives for the Mac Studio, there’s no guarantee that the Mac Pro (currently still rocking an M2 Ultra) will get the same chip.

On top of the existing Macs that we expect to see updated, Apple is rumored to be introducing an all-new Mac this year: a new entry-level model with an iPhone-class Apple A-series processor inside. This device is said to be a direct replacement for the M1 MacBook Air that Apple still sells for $599 via Walmart in the US, years after removing the model from its own retail and online stores.

Expect any replacement to share a lot in common with the old M1 Air, including its 13-inch screen size and (possibly) its paltry-by-modern-standards 8GB of RAM. But for $400 less than the starting price of the M4 MacBook Air, this low-end Mac would still serve a kind of customer that would otherwise have only Windows laptops and Chromebooks to consider.

The Walmart website currently has “low stock” of the M1 MacBook Air—it may be that we can also expect that new low-end MacBook sooner rather than later.