Apple’s first major hardware announcement of the year might be new MacBook Pro models running on the rumored M5 Pro and M5 Max chips. According to a report from Macworld, Apple could reveal these updated laptops with something called Creator Studio.
If you haven’t heard of Creator Studio yet, here are the details: it’s Apple’s newest subscription service that bundles all of their professional creative apps, like Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro, plus four others, into one monthly plan for $12.99. The service is set to launch through the App Store on January 28, 2026, so it’s coming very soon.
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Creator Studio for the new MacBook Pro
Macworld has stated that Creator Studio and the rumor about MacBook Pro models are from the same group of people, called creative professionals. So launching the subscription service at the same time as more powerful MacBooks would be a pretty smart move on Apple’s part.
But I think there’s actually more going on here than just good marketing timing. Let’s look at how Apple handled things with the M4 lineup.
Back on October 30, 2024, they unveiled the entire M4 MacBook Pro family all at once, launching every notebook variant and all the different chip options. Then the M4 MacBook Air followed a few months later in March 2025.
This time around, though, things played out differently. In October 2025, Apple released only the base 14-inch MacBook Pro with the standard M5 chip.
There was no M5 Pro or M5 Max version announced with it; those higher-end chips and their corresponding MacBook models (both the 14-inch and 16-inch versions) are still not available yet. They’re clearly overdue for a launch, which is why this late January timing makes a lot of sense.
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On top of all that, rumors have been circulating for a while now suggesting that Apple plans to launch the M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models sometime in early 2026.
When you connect all these informations together, January 28, 2026, actually becomes a pretty believable launch date. It’s also worth noting that January 28 falls on a Wednesday and Apple has a history of making big announcements on Wednesdays.
That said, there’s still some uncertainty about whether January 28 would be the announcement date or the actual day these MacBooks go on sale. Those are two different things, and we don’t have clarity on that yet.
Either way, it’s worth keeping a close watch on the official X (formerly Twitter) accounts of Apple’s top executives. They often drop hints or tease upcoming launches in the days leading up to a big reveal, so that’s probably where you’ll see the first signs if something is actually happening.
