Apple Spring Event Hoax | Is Apple Still Holding a March Event? Siri Says Maybe
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With less than a week to go to the much-rumoured March 8 date for an Apple Event, it’s looking less likely that we’re going to actually see it happen — at least not next week.
While it’s extremely unusual for Apple to hold its spring seasonal event so early, a reliable report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman pegged the date as March 8 as far back as February 7.
We were also able to independently confirm that, although it wasn’t entirely clear why Apple is holding the event so much earlier than usual. In fact, we’d originally expected it to land closer to March 22, and later heard that it may have been pushed into April.
Even in today’s era of entirely virtual events, Apple typically sends out its media announcements and invites a week before the event is scheduled, just so everyone can mark their calendars, and it can build a bit of hype.
When asking Siri about the possibility of an Apple event, some iPhone users have gotten the response, “You can’t hurry news. No, you’ll just have to wait.” This appeared to be confined to Siri’s U.S. English persona, however, as Siri simply points users in other regions to the general Apple Events page.
This is similar to the kind of teasers that Apple has added to Siri in the weeks leading up to prior Apple events, which also led many to believe that the invites were forthcoming. However, as of now, we’ve heard nothing official. If Apple really was planning a March 8 event, we should have seen the announcements arrive in our mailboxes by now.
Event Hoax | A Fake Invite
Earlier today, however, a well-crafted fake invite began making the rounds on Twitter, leading many to believe that Apple had, in fact, sent out an event announcement. The fakes even began circulating around the time that Apple would have normally issued the real ones.
The tagline for the contrived invitation read “Something’s up”, which was vague even by Apple’s normally cryptic standards. Typically, Apple likes to play with words, phrases, and graphics in its events to provide a hint, or at least fuel speculation on what it could be planning to announce.
This one, however, was genuinely uninspired, with a plain white Apple logo set against a gradient background that vaguely resembled a blue sky.
Clearly, however, Apple has decided to press on with its plans. Siri also began dropping hints earlier this morning, as often happens in the hours leading up to an Apple event announcement.
What’s Going On?
To be fair, the week already began with a bit of doubt whether Apple would hold its March event as originally scheduled, with some believing that Apple might consider it to be inappropriate to hold a product launch event during the major ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Although we may never know for sure what actually happened, that seems as likely an explanation as any. However, it’s equally possible that Apple never had a March 8 event planned in the first place, and either the rumour mill got it wrong, or even the most normally reliable sources fell prey to another clever Apple fake-out.
What to Expect at Apple’s Next Event
Regardless of the exact date, there’s every reason to believe that Apple still has a spring event in the works. There are too many products in the pipeline for it not to, so it’s still a matter of when the event will be held, not if one is coming.
So, even if we don’t know exactly when it’s happening, we still have a pretty good idea of what’s coming.
The 5G iPhone SE
Most of these reports entered around the release of a new 5G-capable iPhone SE, which we still believe is going to make its debut at next month’s event, although it may still not go on sale until a week or two later, but that’s been the norm for every new iPhone models since almost the very beginning.
In fact, with very few exceptions, you can pretty much mark your calendar for when an iPhone will go on sale. In fact, over the past decade or so, every single iPhone except for the 2015 iPhone 6s has arrived in stores 9–10 days after it gets announced at an Apple event, and that depends mostly on whether Apple holds its event on a Tuesday or a Wednesday.
Even though the second-generation iPhone SE wasn’t launched at an Apple Event two years ago, it still saw a nine-day delay between its announcement on April 25, 2020 announcement and the day it landed in stores.
However, that may be the only new Apple product coming next month that we can predict with any kind of certainty.
New iPads
While the iPhone SE has been the obvious frontrunner in the rumour mill, most also agree that Apple is going to have at least one new iPad model to show off.
That’s likely going to be the fifth-generation iPad Air, or “iPad Air 5” since that’s now the oldest model in the lineup. The iPad Air 4 was released in late 2020, just ahead of the iPhone 12 lineup, so it’s now a full Apple CPU generation behind, and it doesn’t offer 5G capabilities either.
With the iPhone SE gaining 5G, it’s a safe bet that Apple isn’t going to leave its popular mid-tier iPad Air out in the cold. However, with rumours suggesting that Apple has up to nine new iPad models in the works, it’s possible that it could even decide to refresh the entry-level 9th-generation iPad to bring 5G capabilities to its entry-level tablet.
This would effectively bring 5G to Apple’s entire family of mobile devices.
New MacBooks
One interesting late entry among Apple product rumours is the possibility of a new entry-level M2 MacBook Pro.
Supply chain sources reported last month that Apple ran its factories at full-tilt to produce new MacBook Pro units, even in the midst of the Chinese Lunar New Year. Since it wouldn’t make much sense for Apple to refresh the nearly 18-month-old MacBook Pro with the same first-generation M1 chip, this suggests that we’re getting something more.
The obvious guess here is that this will herald the arrival of Apple’s next-generation M2 chip. That would be a bold move on Apple’s part, considering that it hasn’t even finished phasing out its Intel Macs, like the Mac mini and 27-inch iMac. However, it’s also likely that it could take care of at least one of these at next month’s event too, with at least one new Mac mini that either gains the same M1 Pro chip found in last fall’s MacBook Pro lineup, or perhaps even makes the jump to the M2.
As for the 27-inch iMac, we suspect it’s far too early to see an update for that. Everything we’ve heard says there’s only going to be one model of larger iMac, and it’s going all the way to an iMac Pro. We’re not expecting to see it until at least June, though.
The dark horse in this race, however, could be the new M2 MacBook Air models. There’s been a lot of speculation as to when those will be coming, but since they’re supposed to sport a nearly complete redesign, it seems odd that we wouldn’t have heard more about them if they were on deck for next month. Reliable sources have suggested we’ll have to wait until the fall for those.
It would be unusual for Apple to lead with the M2 MacBook Pro and not also update the MacBook Air at the same time, which is what it’s been doing with its MacBook lineup for the past few years, but it may also be a good time for the company to break that tradition. So far, the MacBook Air and entry-level MacBook Pro don’t have much to set them apart, so this might be Apple’s opportunity to make its lower-end “Pro” laptop stand out from the rest.
Either way, we shouldn’t have to wait much longer to find out. As usual, Apple will be broadcasting its event live from Apple Park on YouTube and on its Events page, and of course, we’ll have all the news here, both during the event and everything else we’ll undoubtedly hear leading up to it.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
