The calendar has turned to March and Apple is rumored to have at least three product announcements planned between now and the end of April, including a 15-inch MacBook Air, a new Mac Pro tower, and a new iPhone 14 color option.
Below, we have recapped what to expect from Apple this March and April based on rumors. This story was originally published in February and has been updated with new information based on the latest rumors and reporting.
15" MacBook Air
Apple's supply chain started production of display panels for a new 15.5-inch MacBook Air in February, according to display industry analyst Ross Young, who has a very good track record with rumors about future Apple products over the past few years.
Young expects the new MacBook Air to launch in early April, but an announcement and pre-orders could certainly take place sooner. Apple often announces new products in March at an event or with press releases on the Apple Newsroom website, but it did hold an April event in 2021 to introduce a new iMac, iPad Pro, Apple TV, and the AirTag, along with a new Purple color option for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini.
A new 15-inch display size option would be the largest ever for the MacBook Air. The current MacBook Air has a 13.6-inch display, and the laptop was offered in an 11-inch size many years ago. The new MacBook Air is still expected to be equipped with an LCD panel, as the first model with an OLED display is not expected to launch until 2024.
Like the 13-inch MacBook Air, the 15-inch model will reportedly be available with the M2 chip. Apple says the M2 chip has up to an 18% faster CPU, up to a 35% faster GPU, and up to a 40% faster Neural Engine compared to the M1 chip.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo last year claimed that a 15-inch MacBook with M2 and M2 Pro chip options would be released in the second quarter of 2023 or later. Interestingly, Kuo said this MacBook might not have Air branding. On a purely speculative basis, it is possible that Apple could release a 15-inch MacBook that is positioned between the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, but Apple's plans remain to be seen.
New Mac Pro
The next Mac Pro will be available with Apple's upcoming M2 Ultra chip, which would make it the fastest Mac ever, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. He expects the new Mac Pro to have the same design as the 2019 model, but lack user-upgradeable RAM. A higher-end "M2 Extreme" chip for the computer was apparently cancelled.
In January, Gurman said Apple was internally testing a new Mac Pro running macOS 13.3, which will be publicly released this spring, according to Apple. Given this, it is possible that Apple could release both the Mac Pro and macOS 13.3 around March or April, but there is still no definitive timeframe for the computer's release this year, so there remains a chance that the new Mac Pro is announced at WWDC 2023 in June or later in the year.
New iPhone Color
Apple often releases at least one new iPhone color in March or April, and a recent rumor suggests that tradition could continue this year.
Apple plans to make the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus available in Yellow this spring, according to a Weibo post shared by Japanese blog Mac Otakara. Apple last offered a Yellow color option for the iPhone 11 in 2019 and the iPhone XR in 2018. It's unclear if Apple plans to release a new color for the iPhone 14 Pro models.
At its March 2022 event, Apple introduced a new Alpine Green color for the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max, and a new Green color for the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini. In April 2021, Apple made the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini available in Purple.
In earlier years, Apple released a new (PRODUCT)RED color for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 series.
Article Link: Rumor Recap: New Apple Products to Expect in March to April, Including Yellow iPhone 14
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