Apple’s October occasion won’t occur in any respect

Contradicting widespread expectations that Apple will observe its September iPhone/Apple Watch bulletins with a second occasion later within the fall, Mark Gurman has mentioned the corporate will as a substitute unveil its remaining new merchandise for 2022 by way of press launch.

In the most recent instalment of Bloomberg’s Power On publication, the revered leaker discusses the upcoming merchandise. He predicts the approaching announcement of latest (M2 and M2 Pro) variations of the Mac mini, new (M2 Pro and M2 Max) variations of the 14- and 16-inch MacE-book Pro, and new (M2) variations of the 11- and 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

In quantity, that feels like loads for an occasion: earlier in September Apple was blissful that up to date variations of three product traces was enough materials for the most important occasion of the yr. But Gurman fears that the brand new Macs and iPads merely aren’t substantive sufficient to justify a full press gathering.

“None of those new merchandise is a significant departure for Apple,” he explains. “They’ll get some improved specs and a chip that was already introduced at a proper occasion in June at WWDC 2022. That has me pondering: Does Apple actually have sufficient right here to make it price pulling collectively one other extremely polished launch occasion?”

Instead of an occasion, he thinks Apple “is extra prone to launch its remaining 2022 merchandise by way of press releases.” That means an electronic mail to (and in some instances a gathering with) related tech journalists, an article on the corporate’s Newsroom PR web site, and updates to the principle Apple website. But no occasion, both digital or in-person. Simply issuing press releases to mark a product refresh would have been regular behaviour for Apple just some years in the past.

There are precedents for a single fall occasion. While Apple has held a pair of them in six of the final ten falls–and three in 2020–it went for a lone September occasion in 2015, 2017, and 2019. It wouldn’t be particularly uncommon.

Yet if Gurman is true–and characteristically he hedges his bets by saying that “Apple might finally find yourself feeling otherwise”–this might be a significant disappointment. Many pundits have argued that the rumored October occasion might be not simply worthwhile however higher than the September one, with the announcement of the primary post-Intel Mac Pro a specific spotlight; there have additionally been rumors of a redesigned Mac mini. But Gurman now expects the brand new Mac Pro to be a no-show (together with Apple’s extremely anticipated AR/VR headset) and for the Mac mini to be a simple spec bump.

Is Apple achieved with occasions for the yr? We hope not. But proper now it’s a moot level, and we received’t know the reality till subsequent month.