Today’s iPad mini Launch Is Just the Warm-Up Act for an ‘Exciting Week’
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The new iPad mini (A20 Pro) is just the start of what promises to be a fun week of Apple product launches.
In fact, October could turn out to be a banner month for Apple. Just a little under two weeks ago, Apple held a boutique “Welcome Home” event during which it showed us the new HomeView smart hub, an A19-powered Apple TV 4K with quad-surround sound, the HomePod mini 2, and a brand-new smart home collection of cameras, thermostats, and door locks.
However, before that event even began, we were already hearing rumors that Apple had another week of fun planned to unveil today’s new OLED iPad mini, a new 14-inch MacBook Pro and iMac equipped with its latest M6 chip, and the mythic touchscreen MacBook Pro that we’ve been hearing reports on for the past several months.
It’s a product many believed Apple would never make, but if there’s one thing the company has taught us, it’s to never say never. Although both Steve Jobs and Tim Cook once panned the notion, that was well over a decade ago. Times change, and by all reports, the final sign of that will come on Wednesday, when Apple is expected to cap off three days of product announcements with the new MacBook Pro.
That was already pretty obvious by the media invites that Apple sent out last week, inviting folks to an “all-day product launch experience” on October 28. That mirrors what Apple did in March, when Monday iPhone 17e and M4 iPad Air launches were followed by the M5 MacBook Air and M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro on Tuesday and then a final flourish with the all-new MacBook Neo on Wednesday.
This week is shaping up to follow a similar playbook, with today’s iPad mini launch likely to be followed by the M6 Macs tomorrow, and the revolutionary new MacBook Pro on Wednesday — the same day the press shows up to put their hands on it.
But in case there was any doubt, Apple marketing chief Greg Joswiak dropped yet another hint of “an exciting week” as he announced the new iPad mini this morning.
As to exactly what we can expect over the next two days, the consensus among the usual sources is that the entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro and 24-inch iMac will simply get a bump to the M6 chip, likely accompanied by other silicon improvements such as Apple’s N1 wireless chip, which skipped the M5 MacBook Pro last year. Beyond that, neither Mac is expected to get any design changes aside from possibly some new colors for the iMac.
The big news will likely come on Wednesday with the higher-end MacBook Pro models. While an April report from Macworld led to a waft of speculation over the past few months that Apple would create a fourth tier of “MacBook Ultra” to set the touchscreen OLED models apart from the other MacBook Pro models, that was always a slightly dubious notion — and more recent reports have thrown a bucket of cold water on it.
Instead, what we’ll likely see this week is the next evolution of the MacBook Pro lineup. Even though Apple released new higher-end models in March featuring the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, it wouldn’t be the first time it’s debuted two product refreshes in a single year. The M2 Pro and M2 Max MacBook Pro models debuted in January 2023, but lived barely ten months before the M3 Pro and M3 Max versions showed up with an otherwise identical design.
That’s a pretty modest refresh after only ten months. The downside this time around is that the new MacBook Pro is likely to still pack in the same M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, as Apple is reportedly skipping the higher-end versions of the M6 to focus its efforts on the M7 generation. However, an OLED display and a touchscreen will more than make up for it, especially since those will likely be accompanied by some other noticeable design changes.
