Apple intends to slim down the MacBook Pro, Apple Watch, and iPhone, with the new ultra-thin M4 iPad Pro a sign of the company’s new design trajectory, according to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman.
When the M4 iPad Pro was unveiled last month, Apple touted it as the company’s thinnest product ever, and even compared it to the 2012 iPod nano to emphasize its slim dimensions.
Writing in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Gurman says that like the iPad Pro, Apple is now focused on delivering the thinnest possible devices across its lineups without compromising on battery life or major new features.
Gurman writes that the new iPad Pro is the “beginning of a new class of Apple devices,” and that Apple’s aim is to offer “the thinnest and lightest products in their categories across the whole tech industry.”
Apple now reportedly has its sights on making thinner versions of iPhone, Apple Watch, and MacBook Pro over the next couple of years.
Gurman’s sources tell him Apple is now focused on developing a significantly skinnier iPhone in time for the iPhone 17 line in 2025, corroborating a May report by The Information. According to the latter report, Apple is planning to launch an all-new thinner iPhone 17 model next year that will allegedly feature a “major redesign” akin to the iPhone X.
Gurman previously reported that Apple is planning a complete revamp of the Apple Watch for the device’s tenth anniversary, dubbed “Apple Watch X.”
Since the original Apple Watch was unveiled in 2014 and launched in 2015, Gurman is unsure whether the Apple Watch X will be released in 2024 or 2025. However, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today claimed that this year’s upcoming Apple Watch will have a larger screen and thinner design, which sounds like the sort of major overhaul and design signature that Gurman has suggested.
In 2021, Apple significantly redesigned the MacBook Pro, making it thicker and heavier. A major highlight of the redesign was the reintroduction of several ports that were removed in previous iterations in favor of chassis thinness. MacBook Pro models now include an HDMI port, an SD card slot, MagSafe 3 charging port, three Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports, and a headphone jack.
