Apple is reportedly planning a major change to its chip release strategy. According to a new report from Mark Gurman, the company may skip the M6 Pro and M6 Max chips to bring its next AI-focused M7 lineup to market faster.
If the report is accurate, Apple will only release the standard M6 chip. It will power entry-level Macs and iPads instead of launching a complete M6 family.
The change comes as demand for AI-ready devices continues to grow. Therefore, Apple is reportedly adjusting its roadmap to shorten the gap between the M6 and M7 generations. The M7 chips are also expected to feature much stronger graphics performance.
The report suggests that Apple will launch the standard M7 chip in early 2027. Later that year, the company is expected to introduce the M7 Pro and M7 Max models. Meanwhile, the M7 Ultra chip could arrive in early 2028 alongside high-end Mac Studio models. As usual, the Ultra version is expected to deliver nearly twice the performance of the Max variant.
Although Apple may limit the M6 lineup, the base M6 chip is still expected to offer a notable performance upgrade over the M5 series. It will likely feature a new memory architecture, higher memory bandwidth, faster CPU performance, and an improved GPU with up to 12 cores, up from 10. In addition, users can expect better video encoding and decoding, along with a more capable Neural Engine for AI workloads.
The report also states that Apple has not canceled the M5 Ultra chip. However, its launch has reportedly been delayed because of supply chain issues and rising production costs.
