Apple expected to announce new Macs and iPads in March

Now that everyone has bought and returned their Apple Vision Pro, it’s time to take a look at what’s next for Apple. Typically, Apple holds a Spring launch event around the middle of March (sometimes it’s in April), to announce a handful of new products. These are typically minor refreshes of current products.

So what can we expect from Apple this year with their Spring event? Macs and iPads. The iPad part is only common sense since Apple did not release a single iPad in 2023. That’s the first time in the history of the iPad that there were no refreshes in a calendar year. We’ve heard the reason for this is that Apple is working on reworking the entire iPad lineup – hopefully to make it less confusing.

Now the question is, which iPad? Well, if the iPad Pro is indeed getting upgraded to OLED, that would likely be held off for a bigger event. Say, WWDC in June or possibly an October event. The regular iPad is likely coming in October, too, as it’s more of an education iPad. So that leaves the iPad Air.

The iPad Air is rumored to be coming in two sizes, with a new 12.9-inch model arriving. These two sizes would mirror the iPad Pro but without the OLED and MicroLED technologies being included. So our bet is on two new iPad Air models, likely launching with the M3 chipset, which Apple debuted last fall.

New M3 Macs on the horizon

The other announcement that would make sense is the new M3 Macs. Apple announced the M3 chipset (as well as the M3 Pro and M3 Max) during its Scary Fast event on Halloween but only updated the MacBook Pro and iMac (which skipped the M2, actually). That means it’s probably time we see the MacBook Air and Mac Mini get the M3 treatment.

For the MacBook Air, we don’t expect to see many changes here. But we should see both the 13- and 15-inch models getting refreshed at the same time. The Mac Mini is also not expected to see many changes, but if it follows the M2-range of Mac Minis, we could see it launch with M3 and M3 Pro chips inside.

Apple also typically launches a new color iPhone in the Spring to help boost those iPhone sales. Sometimes this is only for the base iPhone, and sometimes it’s for the whole range (including the Pro). We’ll have to wait and see on that front.

One thing to keep an eye out for is the invites. Next week is Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The biggest mobile trade show of the year. This means one thing: Apple is going to send out invites during that show. Apple always does this, they announced Apple Vision Pro pre-orders during CES, sent out iPhone event invites during IFA in August, and the list goes on.