macOS Ventura Expected to Launch in Final Week of October With Support for Next 14-Inch and 16-Inch MacBook Pro

Apple plans to release macOS Ventura alongside iPadOS 16 during the week of October 24, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In his latest newsletter, Gurman said the first version of macOS Ventura adds support for new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, which are expected to be released in the "near future."

The new MacBook Pro models will be available with M2 Pro and M2 Max chip options, but other changes will be minimal, according to Gurman.

While he expects new iPad Pro models with the M2 chip to be announced in "a matter of days," Gurman said the new MacBook Pros are unlikely to be released alongside the next iPad Pro. Instead, he said the new MacBook Pros are "on track to launch in the near future" and noted that Apple has often launched new Macs in November, such as the original 16-inch MacBook Pro in 2019 and the first Macs with the M1 chip in 2020.

Gurman reiterated that Apple is working on an updated Mac mini with an M2 chip. Apple last updated the Mac mini with the M1 chip in 2020, and it continues to sell higher-priced Intel configurations with Core i5 and Core i7 processor options.

Apple still has no plans to hold an October event this year, according to Gurman:

Apple has traditionally ushered in its late fall iPad and Mac updates with splashy events, but this year's rollout will be more subdued. Apple will launch the products on its website without the kind of gathering we saw in September with the iPhone 14's debut.

My belief is that Apple has eschewed another event because of the fairly ordinary nature of the announcements. It's a slew of updates that amount to spec bumps or seen-before designs. Another factor: Apple is probably saving its marketing energy for the Reality Pro headset debut next year.

Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi and marketing chief Greg Joswiak are set to speak at the WSJ Tech Live event on the evening of October 25. It's likely that Federighi and Joswiak will discuss macOS Ventura and iPadOS 16 — hopefully including the controversy surrounding the new Stage Manager feature.

iOS 16.1 will likely launch alongside iPadOS 16.1 and macOS Ventura with many new features for the iPhone, including Live Activities in third-party apps.