I’m worried Apple will skip its October M4 MacBook Pro event

For months now, we’ve been hearing that Apple is set to announce a boatload of new products — including the M4 MacBook Pro range, fresh iPads, and more — at an event this October. Yet a new report suggests that things might not be quite so simple after all.

In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman says that Apple is set to reveal these new products “around the end of October,” with the devices going on sale on Friday, November 1. So far, so expected.

But reading this information gave me pause. Nowhere in his lengthy report did Gurman actually mention Apple hosting an event. If you have the time frame for Apple’s new products (as Gurman claims to have), including the exact date when they’ll go on sale, you’d think we would have heard more information on Apple’s October event through the grapevine. Yet none of that is mentioned: Gurman simply says that Apple will “announce” the Macs and iPads in October, not how that announcement will take shape.

That potentially leaves open the door for these devices to be revealed in a set of press releases. This method is not unheard of — Apple lifted the lid on the M2 Pro and M2 Max MacBook Pros in January 2023 using a press release, so it has happened before.

But it implies something a little more worrying, too. If Apple is happy to use a press release to unveil the high-end M4 chips that these MacBook Pros will be carrying – the M4 Pro and M4 Max, to be specific – that might mean these chips are not as all-conquering as we’d hoped. After all, you’d think Apple would want to make a big song and dance about chips this expensive.

An unlikely outcome

I can’t help but feel that Apple skipping a fall launch event this year is the more unlikely outcome. The company has put on these shows pretty consistently over the last few years, with 2022 being a notable exception (the delayed M2 Pro/Max MacBook Pro, which launched the following January, could be why Apple skipped that one).

There’s also a lot more rumored for October than just the MacBook Pro and a bunch of iPads. Apple is slated to update the iMac with new chips and present an entirely redesigned Mac mini, too. That last product alone would justify some onstage time at an event, but the sheer number of new products that are anticipated for this month implies that press releases just won’t cut it.

Yet, if all that’s so certain, why didn’t Gurman just come out and say it? Maybe this is me carefully reading between the lines, or perhaps it’s me seeing something that isn’t there. It could merely be the case that Gurman’s wording is a little unclear, but that nothing has changed in reality — that is, the expected, but unconfirmed October event is still going ahead as expected.

Apple normally sends out event invitations around two weeks before the show kicks off. Apple media events also typically fall on a Monday or a Tuesday (with the occasional Wednesday thrown in for good measure). Products announced are usually available to preorder the following Friday after the show and then ship the Friday after that.

With Gurman’s information in mind, we can deduce when we should start getting invitations to Apple’s October event. If general availability of the new products will be Friday, November 1, that suggests that preorders will begin Friday, October 25, with the event taking place on either October 21 or October 22. Two weeks before that is either today or tomorrow, which is when we could start getting the event invitations.

The exception is if Apple decides not to have much of an in-person component (like when it hosted the MacBook Pro event in October 2023), in which case invitations might not land until the week starting October 14.

Still, if my calculations are correct, it means we shouldn’t have long to wait until we find out if there really is going to be an October event. I still believe there will be — there are just too many imminent products for Apple to relegate them all to press releases — but the next couple of days could be telling.

Would Apple really risk press release launches for such important products? Probably not. All I need now is to see some invitations in the next day or so and all will be well with the world.