In the high-stakes game of Apple Kremlinology, what isn’t said is almost always more important than what is. And on Apple‘s latest earnings call, the company’s new finance chief all but confirmed our wallets are safe from any new high-end Macs… at least until 2026.

If you’ve been holding your breath (and your credit card) for a shiny new M5 Pro MacBook Pro, a new iMac, or an M5 Mac mini to drop before the end of the year, it’s time to exhale. The party’s been postponed.

The hint—or, let’s be honest, the warning—came from Apple’s new Chief Financial Officer, Kevan Parekh, during the company’s Q4 2025 earnings call on Thursday.

When discussing the outlook for the upcoming holiday quarter, Parekh dropped this piece of carefully worded corporate-speak:

On Mac, keep in mind, we expect to face a very difficult compare against the M4 MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac launches in the year-ago quarter.

Let’s translate that from CFO-talk to plain English.

What Parekh is saying is that the holiday quarter of 2024 was a massive blockbuster for the Mac. Apple launched the M4 Pro and M4 Max MacBook Pro models, a new M4 Mac mini, and the M4 iMac, all in one go. That’s a “very difficult” act to follow.

By flagging this “difficult compare,” he is managing Wall Street’s expectations. He’s essentially signaling that Mac revenue in the holiday quarter of 2025 won’t have that same massive launch to boost its numbers.

The unavoidable conclusion: Apple has no equivalent “Pro” or desktop Mac releases planned for the rest of 2025.

This leaves the Mac lineup in a slightly awkward, lopsided state. Apple did just refresh the very lowest-end 14-inch MacBook Pro with the new base M5 chip. (Yes, the same M5 chip that, in a staggering show of power, also found its way into the iPad Pro).

But that’s it.

If you’re a creative professional—a video editor, developer, 3D artist, or photographer—you are now in a strange limbo. Do you buy the “new” base M5 MacBook Pro and give up the extra power (and ports) of a Pro or Max chip? Or do you buy a “year-old” M4 Pro or M4 Max machine, knowing its successor is just over the horizon?

Parekh’s comment seems to confirm what the most reliable Apple analysts, like Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, have been reporting: the real M5 power is a 2026 story.

The 2026 roadmap: what we’re actually waiting for

With the rest of 2025 now looking like a dead zone for Mac hardware, all eyes turn to next year, which is shaping up to be one of the busiest in Mac’s history. Here’s what the rumor mill, backed by this new financial guidance, suggests is on the docket.

1. The main event: M5 Pro & M5 Max MacBook Pros

These are the machines everyone is waiting for. The high-end 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros are now widely expected to launch in the first half of 2026, possibly in a spring event. These chips are expected to be built on a new, more efficient 3-nanometer process, bringing the next significant leap in graphics and Neural Engine performance for professional workflows.

2. The desktops: M5 Mac mini & M5 iMac

The M4 Mac mini and iMac were holiday 2024 products. Their M5 successors were conspicuously absent from this fall’s lineup. Following the new timeline, these are also pegged for a 2026 release, likely following the Pro laptops.

3. The “big guns”: Mac Studio & Mac Pro

Apple’s most powerful machines are always the last to get new chips. We can expect to see M5 Ultra and (presumably) M5 “Extreme” versions of the Mac Studio and Mac Pro, but they will almost certainly land in the mid-to-late 2026 window, likely being previewed at WWDC 2026.

4. The wildcard: a new “low-cost” MacBook

This is one of the most interesting rumors. For months, reports have circulated about a new, cheaper MacBook designed to compete with Chromebooks in the education market and serve as a true spiritual successor to the beloved M1 MacBook Air (which is, believe it or not, still being sold by Walmart for $599).

This new model isn’t expected to run an M-series chip at all. Instead, rumors point to it using an A18 Pro or A19 Pro chip—essentially a souped-up iPhone processor—to hit a much lower price point. While some had hoped for a late 2025 surprise, Parekh’s comments make an early 2026 launch far more probable.

The final takeaway

For professional Mac users, the news is a classic “good news, bad news” situation. The bad news? You’re not getting a new workhorse for Christmas. The good news? You have official permission from Apple’s own finance chief to save your money.

If you absolutely need a new machine today, the M4 Pro and M4 Max models are still incredibly powerful and will likely see deep discounts this holiday season. But if you’re a pro who craves the latest and greatest, it’s time to settle in. It’s going to be a long winter.