We are finally there. After days of suspense, the first keynote of the year finally has a date. Apple has sent invitations for an event scheduled for Tuesday March 8 at 7 p.m. (metropolitan France time). No public lecture once again, but a video that will be recorded and broadcast from Apple Park in Cupertino (California).
And Apple promises that “ the performance (will) enter (r) in scene ”. As always, the chosen punchline is both nebulous and rich in lessons and clues. And to go along with the announcement, Greg Joswiak, Senior Vice President responsible for marketing, also slipped in a few hints to accompany a new, more animated video of the invitation logo.
On a black background as in front of the usual curtain of the Steve Jobs Theater, the amphitheater which has hosted the keynotes for a few years, we see the apple come alive and beat like a heart in several colors. Colors that we are used to seeing on the rainbow arch located in the heart of the main building of Apple Park and which very often opens the videos.
But clearly, these colors are not trivial. They recently appeared as potential new MagSafe accessories for the latest iPhone 13. They could also be color variations of the Apple brand’s next products. We obviously think first of all of the next long-awaited iPhone SE and which would benefit from coming in color as was once the case with the iPhone 5c or the iPhone 11 or even the iPhone 12 .
FEATURED IPHONE
The iPhone SE 2022 is the expected star of the event. Its arrival in a more powerful version with the A15 chip of the iPhone 13, compatibility with the 5G connection or even a little more storage is hoped for. There remains the question about its look: will it already abandon its design piqued at the iPhone 8 to take the clothes of the iPhone mini, the iPhone X or the iPhone 11? This is the main question that can still be asked (the other being: does he really exist?).
However, rumors are rife about it, its announced success and even its possible sale from the second half of March . Still, launching it just two years after the arrival of a second version would be a big boost in Apple’s maneuvering table for its low-cost smartphone. The simple addition of 5G and colors to choose from seem the most likely.
What if color was first and foremost for the new iPad Air. The new version launched at the end of 2020 , in line with the iPad Pro, had brought color to its models. Seeing them in a new version in additional colors seems plausible, like the iMacs of 2021 and the recent iPad mini .
MACS?WHY NOT, BUT…
A refreshed and boosted iPhone SE, ditto for the iPad Air, all with color. However, there is nothing to get over-enthusiastic with this menu, even for a video conference. Certainly spring has never been, during the time of live keynotes, the highlight of the year for Apple, with products mainly intended for tighter budgets or schools, but the Apple brand has changed the has given over the past two years by changing its habits and announcements. We can therefore expect to see Macs arrive, but not necessarily the top models.
Last year, the iMac had pointed the tip of its nose, but it was above all a question of proposing a fun and colorful device intended to be established in homes with a new design and the M1 chip announced at the previous fall. Not a thunderbolt for professionals or advanced users who are generally waiting for the October keynote.
So when Greg Joswiak talks about “ peek performance ” and the invitation to “ stage performance ”, many are already imagining the M2 chip making a grand entrance. As a reminder, the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, already overpowered, are only a few months old. It’s probably a little early to put them in the closet already. But an iPad Air with an M1 chip, why not. This would already make it significantly more efficient than its predecessor when the iPhone SE would also have something to roll with compared to the 2020 iPhone SE with 5G and the A15 chip. The promise of improved performance of the invitation card would then be kept, whether we like it or not. It is however true that Apple would have several Macs in its drawers and that it will be necessary to start drawing them one day…
And our surprises then? This could perhaps (finally?) be due to the arrival of an affordable MacBook , in color to once again appeal to students, with the famous, long-awaited 12-inch chassis. The return of a product that came out of the catalog with the revival of the MacBook Air a few years ago and which no longer knew where it belonged. If we don’t know exactly the program to come, we at least know that it will have a beating heart (an improvement in the sensors of the Apple Watch?). And in color!