As Tim Cook prepares to open the Worldwide Developer Conference next week, some MacBook Pro owners should get ready for disappointment.
Update, Monday June 9, 2025: This article has been updated with WWDC details about ongoing macOS support for older hardwarenext week, countless Apple fans are getting ready for new life to be breathed into their hardware.
There will be something for everybody, from iPhones and iPads to Apple Watches and MacBook Pro laptops. Yet there will be some let down as Apple prepares to drop support for their laptop from the next version of macOS.As part of the “Platforms State Of The Union” on the opening day of WWDC, Apple discussed its plans for next year’s macOS. While macOS 26 introduces new features for a handful of Intel-based Mac machines, it’s the end of the line regarding new features. MacOS 27 will not support any of the Intel-based Macs. Just four Intel-powered Macs are supported by macOS 26: the 16-inch MacBook Pro from 2019, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with four Thunderbolt 3 ports from 2020, the 27-inch iMac from 2020 and the Mac Pro from 2019. While there will be three years of ongoing security support, which will take care of any required updates, an updated Spotlight, the new Glass UI and the latest Continuity features will be the last major additions for the classic Macs.‘Sirens’ Dethroned In Netflix’s Top 10 List By A New Show, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has previewed the new software that will be launched at WWDC 2025, which includes the next version of macOS. Apple’s focus on updating and unifying the user interface across its operating systems has left little time for any significant updates to its core applications. What is more important is Apple’s approach to artificial intelligence. Last year’s WWDC saw some grandiose promises on the awkwardly backronymed Apple Intelligence—expect any claims to be regarded with more cynical eyes this year. Another AI announcement will be of interest: "Apple will let third-party developers begin tapping into its large language models — the underpinnings of generative artificial intelligence." Given the performance requirements for on-device LLM processing, the older Intel processors will struggle to keep up. In many cases, developers will simply drop support for the x86 Intel architecture and focus solely on macOS under ARM, weakening the potential of the older Macs even more than the simple march of time.The MacBook Pro Meets macOS Tahoe It’s worth noting that Apple is refreshing the numbering system across all of its operating systems, so the next version of macOS will be macOS 26, and the moniker naming looks set to continue with Apple continues to offer multi-year support across its hardware, including the Mac platform in general and the MacBook laptops in particular. And this is where things get awkward for the laptop owners.The support window for the MacBook Pro is expected to reach back as far as the 2019 MacBook Pro. That passes an important rubicon. At that point, the Mac family was still running on x86-based Intel hardware. The ARM-based Apple Silicon arrived at the end of 2020, with the M1 MacBook Pro, M1 MacBook Air, and M1 Mac Mini. That Apple can support the M1 chipset some five years down the line and bring the full range of new tools, including the latest generative AI suite, should not come as a surprise. Yet Apple still plans to support the older, slower and inefficient Intel MacBook Pro models.still running Intel-powered Airs. The MacBook Air from 2020, the last with the Intel Core chipset, will be dropped, leaving only Apple Silicon powered MacBook Air models supported by macOS Tahoe and the versions that follow. It’s less clear for the MacBook Pro. At the very least, Apple should offer security updates to the laptops, but whether the latest apps and utilities are offered remains to be seen. Given the demands placed on the hardware, it’s likely to be a limited subset of those available to Apple Silicon Macs.Consumers using third-party apps will already be familiar with the “unsupported” error messages on apps that are exclusively for Apple Silicon Macs) a list that is growing longer by the day), and more demanding apps such as Photoshop are asking for so much that the Intel Mac are being left behind, no matter what Cupertino is offering. It’s unfortunate that no laptop can last forever. While Apple’s support window is rarely specified for Macs, six years of updates is welcome, yet feels short for an Apple product. This is the downside of the 2020 move from Intel to ARM; Apple gained a much more powerful platform, but was left having to support the older platform for a polite number of years. That support is coming to an end. The consumer-focused MacBook Air has a hard stop coming up. At the same time, the professionally focused MacBook Pro will squeeze out another year or two, which will be welcomed by those using the laptop in a production environment, but Tim Cook has put the platform on notice of cancellation.
Macbook Pro Macbook Air Intel Macbook Pro Intel Macbook Air Apple Silicon Apple Silicon Macbook Pro Apple Silicon Macbook Air Macos 26 Macos Tahoe
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