Everyone's eyes are on Apple today as Cupertino unveils its new M4-powered Macs in a series of announcements expected to be made later this week. This is likely to include a new MacBook Pro, an iMac, and a redesigned Mac Mini.

However, Bloomberg's Apple watcher Mark Gurman has published a report speculating on Apple's next system-on-chip, the M5, and when it might appear. According to him, the M5 will appear in 2025 and, like the M4, will be released in the iPad Pro before being included in other Apple products.

However, unlike the M4-equipped iPad Pro, which will debut this May, the M5 version will not appear until late 2025. Early rumors suggest that it may appear in October along with other new fall products. This is because the M5 processor will not be available until late next year. Garman even suggests that we may not see the M5 iPad Pro until early 2026.

Unfortunately, this is pretty much all we know about how efficient and powerful the M5 chip will be. Earlier this year, it was speculated that the M5 might be a 2nm chip. This is a more powerful node with more transistors than the 3nm M4 currently available.

Apple seemed to rush the release of the M4 chipset because the M3 was almost six months into its lifecycle, but is unlikely to do the same with the M5 SoC. Previously, there were 18 months between cycle updates. It is likely that Apple is trying to return to a similar schedule.

It is surprising that Apple continues to release new silicon in the iPad rather than laptops or desktop computers. This suggests that Apple is prioritizing efficiency over performance. This is because tablets need to sip more tightly on battery life than the big cells of laptops or the wired power of Mac desktops.

Previous rumors suggested that at least two M5-powered iPad Pros could arrive next year, with Wi-Fi and cellular variants; Gurman also suggested that a “new low-end iPad” could launch next year.

We have seen speculation about that device before and believe that an entry-level iPad refresh will launch around March of next year along with a much-needed updated iPhone SE 4 and upgraded iPad Air.