Apple to Close Out 2020 with “One More Thing”
Here we go again. Apple has announced a third and presumably final 2020 event for 10 November 2020 at 10 AM PST. You can add it to your calendar to make time zone math easier.
In previous events, Apple has unveiled new versions of the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and HomePod, so we anticipate this event focusing on the Mac. Specifically, on the first wave of Macs with Apple silicon and perhaps providing a glimpse of the overall roadmap of the switch from Intel. It’s also likely that Apple will announce the release date for macOS 11 Big Sur.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, one of the most reliable purveyors of Apple rumors, says that Apple will announce a line of Apple silicon laptops with new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models. Gurman notes that Apple also has a redesigned iMac and a new Mac Pro in the works.
Could there be anything else? There are two devices that Apple hasn’t updated recently that the company could slide into this event:
- Apple TV: The three-year-old Apple TV 4K and five-year-old Apple TV HD are increasingly long in the tooth, making it hard to justify their $179 and $149 prices, especially as Apple releases the Apple TV app and other Apple-focused technologies for rival streaming media boxes and game consoles (see “AirPlay 2 and HomeKit Coming to 4K Roku Devices,” 28 September 2020, and “Apple TV Is Coming to Xbox Game Consoles,” 2 November 2020).
- iPad Pro: Although the current 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models were released earlier this year (see “Hell Freezes Over: Apple’s New iPad Pro Supports Trackpads,” 18 March 2020), the less-expensive iPad Air may be cannibalizing sales of the 11-inch model (see “Apple Redesigns iPad Air, Updates Base-Model iPad,” 15 September 2020).
As always, you can watch Apple’s announcement with us by joining us in the #events channel of our SlackBITS group—it’s always an enjoyable time. To join the group, go to slackbits.herokuapp.com, enter your email address, and agree to the code of conduct. You’ll receive an invitation in email right away.
What I’d personally like to see is the 13" MBP revamped to 14" (as recently done on the 15"->16" MBP), but I realize it’s unlikely that kind of design change will happen at the same time as the Intel -> AS transition.
I’d be surprised to see the 16" MBP transition now already because I assume it has to come with a dedicated GPU. Last rumors I heard said that (codename “Lifuka”) was still in the works. For the same reason I don’t expect the MP or a higher-end iMac to be transitioned yet. Entry-level iMac or Mac mini seems more likely.
If the 13" MBA goes AS first and ends up with something like all-day battery life at $999 it will most likely be quite a killer Mac in terms of sales.
I’d like to see a new iPad Mini as that was the only one not updated in September.
It’ll be the relationship with third party graphics cards that’ll be interesting, the biggest issue for the Pro end of things. Won’t be surprised at improvements over Intel or their built-in graphics, there’s been a sense of untapped power in iPads for some time.
I’m not convinced the “One More Thing” is going to be about Apple Silicon Macs since it’s been only months since that announcement…I’m going to guess it will center on Big Sur since they would usually get a new OS out the door by year’s end…
We were told during WWDC19 that Apple Silicon Macs would be shipping this year and there really isn’t much more time for that.
I remember them saying those Macs would be in development for up to two years…and that Intel would continue to be supported during that period…yes, they could appear sooner, but I still doubt it. Doesn’t affect me anyway since my MBP is less than a year old.
There also isn’t much time left this year to get Big Sur out the door!
Then you only partially remembered what was said. According to https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/06/apple-announces-mac-transition-to-apple-silicon/: “first system ships by year’s end, beginning a two-year transition”.
It was about the Apple Silicon Macs.
Yes, I see. But it also included a release date for Big Sur as well. So I wasn’t totally wrong.
Apple needs to bring back the backlit Apple logo on the clamshells. On all the laptop models. Notice that in the black and white movie at the start of this keynote, almost every Mac they showed has the lit Apple. It costs them nothing to do this since the light comes from the display anyway, so why do away with this? People loved it. Apple brought back the startup chime in these new M1 models, and they also need to bring back this feature we’ve enjoyed since the G3 PowerBook days. It’s iconic.