The Biggest New Product Lineup in Apple’s History Is Expected This Fall

Apple Product Lineup Rumored for 2022 iPhone 14 iMac Pro MacBook Air Concepts Credit: AppleyPro / Twitter
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It’s fair to say that this could be a big year for new Apple product releases (especially with the AR/VR Headset looming on the horizon), but it appears that Apple has a lot more up its sleeve, and if rumours are true, the company is hoping to end the year with a big bang.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple’s upcoming spring event is expected to be little more than an “appetizer” for a “feast of new products” expected to arrive during the regular series of fall events.

What New Products Are Coming This Fall?

This will naturally include the usual suspects, like the iPhone and the Apple Watch, but it looks like Apple is planning to save a few of its other big announcements for later in the year.

According to Gurman, this will likely include the next-generation iPad Pro and the revamped MacBook Air, which is expected to herald the biggest redesign to come to Apple’s laptops in years.

I’m told that Apple is readying the widest array of new hardware products in its history this fall. That makes sense: My back-of-the-envelope list includes four new iPhones, a low-end MacBook Pro, an updated iMac, the new Mac Pro, a revamped MacBook Air, an AirPods Pro upgrade, three Apple Watches, a low-end iPad and iPad Pros. Mark Gurman

That’s not all, though, as there’s still a larger and more powerful iMac or “iMac Pro” coming, and we’re still not even sure whether that will be one product or two. Some reports have suggested that Apple may be planning an upgraded 27-inch or 30-inch iMac that basically comes in as a larger version of last year’s 24-inch model, to be followed by a new iMac Pro that could have a screen as large as 32 inches and an even more powerful stacked M-series chip. Even if that’s true, however, the more powerful model may not come this year.

If Gurman’s sources are correct, we won’t be seeing most of these arrive this spring. Perhaps the best we can hope for is a larger M1-powered 27-inch iMac, but that assumes that the iMac Pro is still coming later. There’s also likely an M1 Pro/Max refresh of the Mac mini waiting in the wings.

Both of these could come this spring as part of that “appetizer” course that Gurman is speaking about. This would ensure that Apple keeps the Apple Silicon momentum going while saving the really big stuff for later in the year.

Rumour has it that Apple is also planning to upgrade its entry-level MacBook Pro, likely adopting the new 14-inch design, but leaving it with a standard M-series chip, rather than a Pro/Max version found in its more premium MacBook Pro models.

However, since Apple has refreshed this model alongside the MacBook Air — and it’s likely to also include the same M2 chip — it’s fair to say that this won’t be coming before the fall either. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be anything to see at Apple’s spring event.

What’s on Deck for Apple’s Spring Event?

New iPhone SE

Firstly, a new iPhone SE is, as Gurman calls it, “a shoo-in.” Apple has always released its iPhone SE models in the spring, to avoid taking any attention away from its flagship models that debut in the fall. There’s no reason to believe that’s going to change this year.

New iPad Air

We’ve also been hearing solid reports of a new iPad Air coming very soon, and if the fall is going to be about a new iPad Pro, Apple will want to get the iPad Air out of the way first. It’s also been 16 months since the iPad Air 4 debuted, so it’s now the oldest iPad in Apple’s product lineup. We think the company will want to match that up to the specs of the new iPad mini 6 sooner rather than later.

New Mac mini, iMac

Then, as we mentioned earlier, there’s the Mac mini and the iMac, both of which could arrive with an M1 Pro chip in the next couple of months, once again clearing the stage for Apple’s M2 to show up in the fall.

What else could be on the menu? I’d imagine Apple wants to bring the M1 Pro chip to another Mac in the first half of this year. That could mean a higher-end Mac mini or iMac.Mark Gurman

The Mac mini in particular seems ripe for this, as the higher-end version is now the family member that’s been stuck with an Intel chip for the longest. Apple brought the M1 chip to the entry-level Mac mini alongside the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro in late 2020, but left the Intel Mac mini on the market due to the maximum SSD, memory, and port limitations of the M1 chip.

So, the Mac mini is due for the same kind of upgrade that came to the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro last fall. Whether Apple will take it all the way to the M1 Max is an open question, but it’s expected to at least get an M1 Pro to match the maximum capabilities of the current Intel model, which includes four Thunderbolt 3 ports and maxes out at 64GB of RAM, both of which surpass what the M1 offers.

The 27-inch iMac could also follow suit, sporting a design similar to the 24-inch model, with a larger screen and more Thunderbolt ports. Although the M1-powered iMac includes four physical USB-C ports, only two of those are Thunderbolt-capable.

New Apple Watch SE?

Lastly, there’s one other potential dark horse in this race. The Apple Watch SE could end up shifting to follow the schedule of the iPhone SE, with a spring release to set it apart from the main Apple Watch Series 8, which we’re still expecting to arrive this fall.

There’s been some speculation that the rumoured redesign that never came to the Apple Watch last year was actually for the Apple Watch SE. The timing of those rumours seems well-aligned with a spring release, and if it’s going to redesign the Apple Watch SE to set it apart, it would make a lot of sense for Apple to debut it separately. This is mostly speculation at this point, as there’s been little evidence to suggest such a thing is actually coming, but it’s still an interesting possibility.

[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.]

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