Apple fans, start saving your money. Look for Apple to release a 15-inch MacBook Air, 14-inch iPad Pro, M3-equipped iMacs, revamped HomePod, and more next year, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman predicts in his latest Power On newsletter.
“Next year should be pretty jam-packed for Apple. Look for a 15-inch MacBook Air, new M3 iMac, the Mac Pro, updated HomePod, Reality Pro headset and a larger iPad,” he says. “There’s also the potential debut of the company’s combined Apple TV, HomePod and FaceTime camera device coming at the tail end of the year.”
Most of these devices have been rumored for some time. In March, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said such a laptop would arrive next year, but he didn’t think it would be dubbed a MacBook Air. Though he didn’t offer a different name, he said that although a larger display generally consumes more power, the design goal is to use a 30W power adapter.
Also in March, analyst Ross Young of Display Supply Chain Consultants — in the company’s quarterly display analysis report — said that Apple was working on a 15-inch MacBook Air model for next year.
There have also been rumors of a 12-inch Mac laptop dubbed simply “MacBook.” However, the Sellers Research Group (that’s me) doesn’t think this will happen.
As for an even bigger iPad Pro (the iPad Pro Plus? The iPad Pro Ultra?), in June Majin Bu, a Twitter leaker, tweeted that Apple is working on a new 14-inch iPad Pro that will pack a M2 processor. “According to my resource, Apple is developing a new 14.1-inch iPad M2 with 512GB and 16GB of base memory,” he said.
With Apple touting the iPad Pro as a laptop replacement/alternative and Microsoft offering a 15-inch Surface Book, would there be a market for a 14-inch iPad Pro. Of course, some folks find the 12.9-inch iPad Pro too awkward for use as a tablet. I don’t. Since I sometimes use it instead of a laptop, an even bigger model sounds interesting.
Gurman says that Apple is skipping the step of putting an M2 processor in an iMac. Instead, he thinks that the next rev of the 24-inch all-in-one will pack an M3 chip. Gurman also thinks that Apple is still working on an iMac (iMac Pro?) with a larger display and even more powerful chip.
As for a HomePod/Apple TV/FaceTime combo device, here’s what. Gurman has said in the past: I absolutely do think a new HomePod is coming — specifically, a device that combines a HomePod, Apple TV and FaceTime camera. I don’t think a big stand-alone HomePod is still in development, but perhaps a new HomePod mini is coming. In any case, the combination product will probably be at the center of Apple’s approach, with HomePod minis surrounding that throughout the home.
Finally, when it comes to Apple’s rumored augmented reality headset, Gurman expects it to finally debut in 2023. He thinks the tech giant is developing three new headsets. Gurman says the first headset which Apple will unveil will likely be called Apple Reality Pro. This will be a Mixed Reality headset and “will probably end up being the company’s high-end rival to Meta’s upcoming Quest Pro.”
