Apple may hold its announcement event on March 8, people familiar with Apple's plans tell Bloomberg.
According to Mark Gurman's predictions, four key announcements are likely at Apple's Spring event. Unlike some of Gurman's recent newsletters, he cites sources familiar with Apple's plans, providing legitimacy to the report.
As has long been speculated, the Apple presentation will feature a new iPhone SE model with 5G capability. According to the sources, the mid-range smartphone will have a faster processor and a better camera, but it will not have a radical new design.
This means, among other things, that the standard iPhone Home button isn't going away anytime soon. The current iPhone SE has a Home button-based design that is identical to that of the iPhone 8 from 2017. The story doesn't go into detail on how Apple would manage with the higher battery drain associated with 5G with that design, which has a surprisingly small battery by today's standards.
That isn't the only existing rumor that the report promises to corroborate. The iPad Air will then be updated. The Air will, as expected, feature a faster processor, but like the iPhone SE, it will also have 5G capabilities. The report doesn't say anything about the new iPad Air's look, but the tablet was recently redesigned, so we expect the device will look similar to its predecessor.
The insiders also suggest that Apple aims to unveil a new Apple Silicon Mac as early as March, albeit the report does not ensure the item will be present at the event.
According to other reports, Apple needs extra time to complete the display-centric high-end iMac redesign. So our best guess for a new Mac at a March event is a new, high-end Mac mini with the M1 Pro or M1 Max processors found in recent MacBook Pro models. Apple's custom-designed silicon is currently only found in the low-end Mac mini, which has an M1 processor. High-end Mac mini models are still Intel-based, but they haven't been updated in a while.
Finally, the report states that iOS 15.4 will be released in the first half of March. iOS 15.3 did not include any big new features, but based on what we've seen in previous beta releases, iOS 15.4 appears to be on the verge of doing so. It will specifically allow users to login with Face ID while wearing face masks, as well as introduce the long-delayed Universal Control feature, which was originally scheduled for the first release of iOS 15 last year.
Apple's plans are subject to change, as they usually are. The company normally finalizes event dates by sending out email invitations to journalists and influencers around a week in advance.
