Apple is having another hardware launch event Tuesday, the second of its kind the company has hosted this fall, and the fourth major media event for Apple this year. While September’s iPhone launch was probably more exciting for the many millions of people who will buy new handsets this year, tomorrow’s announcements could in some ways be more interesting than new iPhones.
That’s because we’re expecting to see new iPads and a new MacBook, one that could fill the years-long gap since Apple last had an “affordable” premium laptop in its lineup. And, while Apple’s iPad leads the tablet category overall, tablet sales overall have declined year-over-year for the past five years. There are really two ways Apple can go to try to make these large glass slabs more appealing: lower the cost and make them more accessible, which it did this past spring, or add some whiz-bang features to its top-of-the-line iPad Pro. Tomorrow, we’re expecting we’ll see more of the latter.
And, while Apple did just update its expensive MacBook Pro line this past summer, those machines were largely aimed at professional, or, people who have $2,000 to spare for a laptop with a superfluous TouchBar. Nothing has quite come close to the lightness, power, and overall convenience of the MacBook Air, though Apple has tried to offer that with its 12-inch MacBook in recent years. Let’s see if it revives the fan favorite MacBook Air in some way.
In recent years, Apple has tried positioning the iPad as something that transcends traditional computing form factors. (It has even gone so far as to put out an ad campaign featuring an iPad-toting kid who innocently asks, “What’s a computer?”) In some ways, this is spot on: the iPad Pro has desktop-grade processing power, and for some people it’s the only computer they need. During tomorrow’s event, expect Apple to push that message even harder, even as it potentially announces a new clamshell laptop all at the same time.
The first iPad Pro, released in 2015, came in one size: it had a 12.9-inch display, which meant it was a massive tablet. That was followed by a 9.7-inch iPad Pro the following year. According to a report from Bloomberg, this year Apple may ship an iPad Pro with an 11-inch display in addition to the 12.9-inch iPad. Drastically reduced bezels on the iPad would increase the footprint of the display. This also means the new iPad Pros would ship with FaceID in lieu of a home button, and have the same gesture-based UI that the iPhone XS has. Another report suggests that Apple could include a USB-C port on the new iPad Pros.
The iPad Pro is also compatible with a Pencil, which as of this spring, now works on cheaper iPads too. At the very least, we’re expecting to hear about minor upgrades to the Pencil.
The $999 MacBook Air is pretty much the same non-Retina machine as the one introduced in 2010, though it’s been refreshed in minor ways a couple times since then. In 2015 it was updated to include a fifth-generation Intel Core chip, which improved the battery life. In 2017, it was updated with a slightly speedier chip and double the RAM.
But Apple is undoubtedly feeling a little bit of pressure from the growing popularity of low-cost Chromebooks. Plus, people just really love the MacBook Air, despite its low-res display. So is it time for another one? Will it be called the MacBook Air? Let’s call it the MacBook Air-ish, for now.
Early reports, including ones from well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, suggest that a new MacBook Air-ish could include a fingerprint sensor for authentication, something that’s been present on high-end Windows machines for years now. It won’t have a TouchBar, which will set it apart from the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros that come with this option. Perhaps the most exciting of the rumors is that this new MacBook Air-ish might have a Retina display.
At this point, these rumored features are table stakes for any new laptop being released in 2018, and wouldn’t be especially innovative. But if Apple keeps this laptop at its relatively low price point, equips it with a nice display and modern chipset, and doesn’t make the port experience completely frustrating, it’s likely to be well-received tomorrow.
Apple’s Mac Mini hasn’t been updated in about four years, but a report from Bloomberg in August suggested that this little desktop PC (which ships without a display) will be refreshed this year, and that it will be aimed more at pros. The Mac Mini that’s currently available costs just $500, which makes it appealing for a lot of people who need a desktop workstation, but it also has fourth-generation Intel processors. So yeah. Time for an upgrade.
It’s been over a year since Apple announced its AirPower multipurpose wireless charging pad, and we haven’t seen it or heard Apple even mention it since. Any reference to the product was scrubbed from Apple’s own website in September, something that was first spotted by 9to5Mac. Notable Apple blogger John Gruber has suggested that Apple has had trouble with the charging pad’s multi-coil design (in wireless charging, the transmitting coils create an electromagnetic field, which induces a voltage or current in the receiving coils in the end product).
It’s possible that Apple could managed to ship AirPower before the end of the year, or some version of it, but if it’s not mentioned at tomorrow’s event that would seem very unlikely. I’ll just say this: It is very, very unusual for an Apple product to simply ghost after being announced to much fanfare.
We’ll be on the ground live-blogging Tuesday’s Apple event, and covering it remotely as well. And if you want to follow along yourself, you can watch it on Apple's website.
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