As we begin the new year, there will no doubt be many new Apple products and other Apple changes. Here are some of the things I think will happen. Some are pretty much guaranteed, while others are speculation, and some are hope.
Hardware
I’ll begin with hardware because it’s what I am most looking forward to. My wife has the M1 Mac mini and it’s the most stable and speediest Mac I’ve been around. I really think Apple will expand upon the Apple Silicon offerings.
In 2021, I expect to see the next generation of the M1 chip. I predict it to be called the M2 since Apple has long used sequential numbering of the A series chips.
I think Apple will introduce a larger MacBook Pro with the next generation of the M chip. I think they will add four USB-C ports to this larger MacBook. There will perhaps be a new iMac based upon the M chip. I expect an updated Mac mini with additional i/o ports.
As far as other hardware, I think there will be updates to the iPad and Apple Watch. I am expecting to see a new Apple TV since the latest one dates back to 2017. I feel the updated Apple TV will use the M series chip to provide a much more robust gaming experience.
Software
iOS 15 is pretty much guaranteed. The question is what changes or additions will be done. After seeing the great popularity of widgets and screen customization, I think Apple will expand upon this. At this point, I don’t expect major changes to iOS in order to help maintain continuity and stability.
One area Apple might expand upon is Siri Shortcuts. I use the personal automations to send regular iMessages and other automation. I am hoping that Apple will expand upon iOS automation.
The next version of macOS, watchOS, and iPadOS will be introduced. I feel all will be mostly incremental updates with a focus on stability.
Services
Apple is pushing into services in a huge way with Apple One. I expect one area of services that Apple might push into is to combine the current Apple One services with hardware. They might offer one price for a new iPhone each year with one of their top tier of services.
One service I would love to see Apple enter into is full iCloud backups of Macs. We can have full backups of our iPhones and iPads, but with Macs, the best we can do is to backup certain data to iCloud. I would like to see a Time Machine backup be able to use iCloud storage. With 1GB Internet becoming much more common, this is something that would provide a simple backup for Mac users.
2021 is going to be an exciting year for Apple. I most am looking forward to seeing where Apple goes with Apple Silicon. Having access to one of the new M1 Macs has shown me just how powerful and stable the new Macs are. If the first generation is this good, I can’t wait to see and use subsequent generations.
