It's official! The next Apple event will take place on Tuesday, March 8 at 10 a.m. PT. The first of the new Apple products of 2022 are likely to be announced during this event and there's a lot of speculation of what they will be. Will we see a new iPhone SE? How about an iPad Air? And what about these iMac Pro rumors? There's a lot we might be seeing, so let's take a look.
When Is the Next Apple Event?
Apple tends to hold a spring event each year, with last year's being held on April 20, 2021. This year, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg tweeted confidently in January that there will be a spring event "for the iPhone SE 5G and other hardware" and later predicted in his Power On newsletter that the next event will take place on March 8. Apple confirmed this rumor on March 2 when it sent out invitations for a spring event.
Spring Apple Event: iPhone SE, Mac Mini, iMac Pro & More
What new devices will we see when the March 8 event happens? There are many rumored new Apple products of 2022, so this may be an abundant year. Many of the supposed planned launches of the past couple years appeared to be put off due to the pandemic and supply chain shortages, so if Apple is playing catch-up we could be in for a big haul.
iPhone SE 5G
One of the strongest rumors about the supposed Apple spring event is that Apple will unveil a new generation of the iPhone SE, this time with 5G. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted this early last year, doubling down on the prediction in June, claiming this would be the "cheapest 5G iPhone ever." NikkeiAsia published a report claiming we wouldn't see any big changes in the new SE's design, and that it would be keeping its 4.7-inch LCD screen instead of upgrading to OLED like Apple's other recent iPhones have done. Analyst Ross Young tweeted that the 2022 model would be called the SE Plus, and agreed that we wouldn't be seeing an OLED screen until 2024. Chinese site MyDrivers believe the new SE will have a design similar to the XR but that it will feature Touch ID on the side.
Read more about our iPhone SE predictions.
iPad Air 5th Generation
According to Mac Otakara, we may be seeing the 5th-generation iPad Air this spring. The design is not expected to change much, but we may see ramped-up features similar to the new iPad mini such as the A15 bionic chip, 5G compatibility, quad-LED True Tone flash, and a 12MP super wide angle front camera, which could mean we'd see features like Center Stage on the new iPad Air. There had originally been some rumblings about the new iPad Air sporting an OLED screen, but Ming-Chi Kuo said in a report obtained by MacRumors that this was pushed off due to concerns about both quality and cost.
iMac Pro
One of the possibilities we may see at this event is a larger-screen iMac called the iMac Pro, according to leaker Dylandkt. He also claims its starting price will be over $2,000, that it will have the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, and that we will see it in the first half of this year. Mark Gurman believes we'll see an increase on the 27-inch screen iMac model, citing that the shift from the 21.5-inch iMac to the 24-inch iMac could indicate future patterns. A report published on DigiTimes says we'll see a variety of colors with the 27-inch iMac and that it won't come with a mini-LED display, though Dylandkt disagrees with that.
Mac Mini
In his Bloomberg report, Mark Gurman claims Apple is working on a new Mac mini that uses the same chip as the MacBook Pro, meaning it will be a lot more high powered than the current version. The report says to expect four ports on this new Mac mini compared with the current model's two, and indicates it could be larger in size. Gurman doesn't, however, indicate we'll see this new Mac mini in the spring event, saying Apple could cancel or delay these plans, though he seems confident we will eventually see this device. He had said back in August 2021 that we would see this new Mac mini in "the next several months" but the new report has dialed back that expectation. You can read more Mac rumors here.
This year is looking to be chock full of releases, but whether or not all of these will come to market this calendar year remains to be seen. Stay tuned!
