The rumor mill always says that Apple will update nearly everything in the Fall, and it’s almost never true. Here’s when to expect updates to iPad, AirPods, Mac, MacBook Pro, and more.
The rumor mill always says that Apple will update nearly everything in the Fall, and it’s almost never true. Here’s when to expect updates to iPad, AirPods, Mac, MacBook Pro, and more.
Apple’s „Wonderlust“ special event in September saw the introduction of the iPhone 15 lineup, the Apple Watch Series 9, the Apple Watch Ultra 2, and an updated AirPods Pro case with USB-C. With the main iPhone release done for 2023, the attention now shifts to the rest of Apple’s product catalog.
We know there are rumors about Apple’s most-popular product lines, but there’s quite a few items in the collection that simply haven’t seen an update in quite a while, and could be due one soon. A product that hasn’t been updated in a while stands a good chance of being updated eventually.
What follows is a comprehensive look at everything else that Apple didn’t include in the September event, when they were last updated, and the chances of an update running until May.
AirPods
Apple did touch upon AirPods during the September event, albeit in a very limited fashion. At the time, all Apple did was introduce a new charging case for the AirPods Pro that uses USB-C instead of Lightning.
The AirPods were last given a bump in October 2021 to the third-generation model, two and a half years after the second-generation release, which itself was two years and 3 months after the original version.
Based on this cadence of two years and a quarter or thereabouts, an AirPods update could easily occur in early 2024.
AirPods Max
Apple’s AirPods Max is the considerable outlier of the group, with the least information to work from since there’s only been one release in December 2020. That’s two years and nine months ago at the time of writing.
A release in early 2024 would give the AirPods Max a three-year cadence, which seems plausible considering the rest of the AirPods range. Since we have only one real data point to work with, this is a best guess as much as anything.
AirPods Pro
The AirPods Pro were last updated in September 2022, with the second-generation release, while the first-generation came out in October 2019. Apple has also added a case change between releases, such as the MagSafe Charging Case release in September 2021, and the September 2023 USB-C version.
With a gap between the actual releases of three years, and with case updates also occurring between releases, we may not necessarily see an update for another year or two.
Mac Mini
The desktop Mac lineup consists of a few models, if we exclude rumors of a large-screened iMac for a moment. For most of them, we have a good idea of a release cadence, or at least we can take an educated guess that nothing’s happening anytime soon.
Apple has a tendency to release Macs in order based on the schedule of its M-series chip releases. Some Macs use the lower-end chips, so will arrive early in the chip cycle, while others gravitate towards the other end.
Since Apple used WWDC to introduce the M2 Max and M2 Ultra Mac Studio, that effectively puts an end to the M2 generation, and therefore the next releases should be at the start of the M3 range.
That would mean the Mac mini would be among the next Macs to launch, since it is usually equipped with the lowest M-series chip. As Apple’s last two Mac mini launches took place in January 2023 and November 2020, and rumors point to an M3 launch starting in October with a somewhat shortened M2 generation, that may be good news for the Mac mini.
A three-quarter gap between generations is tough to consider for the Mac mini, but a one-year gap for early 2024 seems quite a bit more plausible.
24-inch iMac
Another one that is more likely to be early in the cycle is a new 24-inch iMac. It is a strong contender for an update as it arrived in May 2021.
Since it’s over two years since the initial release, and with the prospect of the start of M3 on the horizon, a new 24-inch iMac stands a good chance for an early release in the new chip generation.
