Will Tim Cook summon the media back to the palatial Steve Jobs Theatre before the end of the month? If so, when will it be and what will be announced? The smart money is on October 29th, and by rights the space should belong to the MacBook Pro. Let’s look at the clues…
I’ll start with the date, Tuesday October 29th. It’s a touch later than previous October events which aim for the third week of the month, but there’s the curious case of the shifted earnings call. Apple’s fourth quarter earnings call is taking place on Wednesday October 30th. As noted by Neil Cybart, traditionally these calls take place on a Tuesday… unless there’s an Apple event that week, because they also traditionally take place on a Tuesday.
Given the avalanche of product launches and reveals since the iPhone 11 stumbled into the digital arena, Apple has faded into the background. From the clean lines of the OnePlus 7T and the powerful camera in the Huawei Mate 30, to the innovation on show from Microsoft’s Surface Duo and next week’s Pixel 4 reveal; there’s been a lot of change in the smartphone world and very little of it matches up with Apple’s view of the smartphone world.
Frankly, it’s time to remind everyone that Apple can still bring in the press and create a narrative about technology. The best way to do that, frankly, is to set up an event that focuses the media’s collective mind on Apple’s vision, as opposed to any other.
Every Apple event is used to reinforce the message of the previous event, so Tim Cook could use another free hit in front of an invited audience to remind the world about the technology that only Apple can deliver, before moving on to introduce new technology such as the 16-inch MacBook Pro.
Primarily the macOS story should be about the new MacBook Pro, as Apple returns to a larger-screened laptop expected to clock in at 16 inches. While it doesn’t match the 17-inch standard of Windows 10 laptops, it will be the largest MacBook screen for many a year.
Package this up with the official launch of macOS Catalina (previewed at WWDC in June), and the potential announcement of retail availability on the Mac Pro, Tim Cook and his team could easily put together a ‘Massive Mac Attack’ event.
Yet in all of this, even if Apple has a new MacBook Pro ready to reveal to the world, do you really think that Tim Cook is going to give it pride of place? Especially when there is the iPad Pro to update, a new hardware feature hiding in the iPhone 11 family to switch on, and subscription based services to hawk?
Any MacBook Pro launch is going to be overshadowed within minutes by Apple’s own hand.
Now read more about Apple’s obsession with thin designs and how it has hampered the MacBook family…
