On Monday we learned that Microsoft is getting ready to fully unveil its vision for "AI PCs" next month at an event in Seattle. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans told The Verge that Microsoft is confident that a round of new Arm-powered Windows laptops will beat Apple’s M3-powered MacBook Air both in CPU performance and AI-accelerated tasks.

It seems that this news prompted Apple to leak that they're planning a complete overhaul of its Mac lineup with powered by the M4 processor, designed to highlight artificial intelligence.

Apple attempted to breathe new life into their Mac business with an M3-focused launch event last October, but those chips didn’t bring major performance improvements over the M2 from the prior year. They did However boost sales in Calendar Q1 2024, with Apple being the only OEM to show double digit growth.  

Apple is aiming to release the updated computers beginning late this year and extending into early 2025. There will be new iMacs, a low-end 14-inch MacBook Pro, high-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros, and Mac minis — all with M4 chips if the company’s plans don't change.

Apple is then planning to follow up with more M4 Macs throughout 2025. That includes updates to the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air by the spring, the Mac Studio around the middle of the year, and the Mac Pro later in 2025. The MacBook Air received the M3 chip last month, while the Mac Studio and Mac Pro were updated with M2 processors last year.

As part of the upgrades, Apple is considering allowing its highest-end Mac desktops to support as much as a half-terabyte of memory. The current Mac Studio and Mac Pro top out at 192 gigabytes — far less capacity than on Apple’s previous Mac Pro, which used an Intel Corp. processor. The earlier machine worked with off-the-shelf memory that could be added later and handle as much as 1.5 terabytes. With Apple’s in-house chips, the memory is more deeply integrated into the main processor, making it harder to add more.

The big focus for Apple this year is to add new artificial intelligence features across its products. The company is planning to preview a slew of new features at its June developer conference. A large swath of those features are designed to run on the devices themselves — rather than in remote servers — and speedier chips will help drive those enhancements. Apple is also planning to make AI-focused upgrades to this year’s iPhone processor. For more on this, review the full Bloomberg report here.

In a Reuters report on this matter, they added that Apple could announce a new AI partnership and unveil significant changes to the iOS at WWDC24 in June.

The questions become (1) will Qualcomm deliver a follow-up chip for this fall for laptops to enable PC vendors to go head-to-head with M4-MacBooks?, and (2) will Apple's upcoming AI features be able to counter those from Microsoft including Copilot?  What we do know for sure, is that AI PCs will reinvigorate the PC sector this fall while Qualcomm and Apple battle it out for best laptop CPU in 2024.