Whether this year, Apple’s spring event will take place or not, only Apple knows. Since December 2020, Apple has not announced anything new; since November, all the media have been writing about the event in the second half of March 2021 without ceasing. It’s already March, and Apple is silent about it. There is silence in Apple Park. Is it the calm before the storm, have they nothing to say or something else? And if the spring event does take place in March, what will be announced there? New chips, Macs, tablets, beacons, new AirPods, or something we still don’t even know about?
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When is the next Apple presentation
Recently, it has not been accepted to believe the predictions of YouTube blogger John Prosser. Since last September. Once upon a time, they listened to him. By the way, he still has the same ratio of successful prophecies to unsuccessful ones (78.2%) as Min Chi Ko, who is considered undoubtedly worthy of trust. In September 2020, something like a duel took place between John and Mark Gourmet of Bloomberg (89.1% of whose predictions came true) – they argued whether Apple’s September event would occur and what it would be. Mark won.
And while history repeats itself. John and Mark duel again, live, and about the same thing: John Prosser announced that Apple’s special event would take place on March 16, 2021. Mark Gurman replied, “no, not March 16th.” There are rumours about March 18th, but it’s Thursday. What will be shown at this event, if it will occur at all (most likely, yes)?
New iPad mini
2021 is a major and decisive year for the Mac platform to move to Apple’s own architecture. But according to the latest data, this March, the main topic will not be the new M1 Mac models, but the iPad. Tablets. iPad Pro, and even with the new Apple A14X system-on-chip inside, is almost as good as the M1 in terms of the most important parameters. And iPad mini 6th generation, a compact tablet with a screen diagonal of 8.5 or 9.0 inches, with the same filling as in iPad Air 4. About another compact tablet, but already of a professional level (with Apple A14X inside) iPad mini Pro, more and more rumours, their intensity is skyrocketing.
Technically, why not? This is real; although the developers would have to break their heads and solve many puzzles to bring such a device to the apple level of quality, this is exactly why they came to Apple. It is not clear why such an iPad should be created; these days, small tablets are a niche product; their demand is stable but not too high. If Apple has invested money and energy in such a project, it must be something completely out of the ordinary. With the iPad mini Pro, not everything is clear – according to some sources, it will be released in the fall. Perhaps a mini-version of the iPad Air 4 will be announced at the same time.
AirTags – Apple search beacons
In the media, the next (I have already lost count of what) aggravation of the topic about Apple beacons. AirTag. They are awaited again, again in two standard sizes, and interesting things are reported about them. If they are the same as we were told about them during the past exacerbations, we do not need them and are not interesting. But in the case of Apple, nothing is certain. What if they are completely different?
AirPods 3
But AirPods 3, which are almost in no way inferior to AirPods Pro, are perhaps still more interesting. They also talk about AirPods Pro 2, but less decisively and definitely – from which, knowing Apple, one can draw a paradoxical conclusion: it is they who will be presented.
Apple TV of the sixth (or even seventh) generation, AirPods Sport (AirPods Max for rough conditions of use, made of more durable, yet cheap materials), may also see the light. But I think a bit too much for the March event.
When will the new M1 Macs be shown?
The first stage of the transition was not even successful – it was triumphant. Apple’s success on this path really threatens the rest, and any of its failures will be used against it, especially Intel. Therefore, the haste with the release of the next chips and computers with them inside is unacceptable. The likelihood that, instead of the prohibitively chic iPad Pro and iPad mini, they will still present the M1X and new Macs, and still there is, but close to zero. The new generation of M-chips and new Apple computers will most likely be presented in June at the opening of WWDC.