Flipping through the dusty pages of the calendar, we rang the New Year's bell for 2022 and waved goodbye to 2021. As the pace of spring is gradually approaching, various mobile phone manufacturers are actively preparing for the "opening of the door", hoping to start a new year with a wonderful spring conference - even the high-profile Apple is no exception.
According to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, Apple will also follow the previous release model this year, that is, update its lesser or complementary products in the spring, release new software and hold developer conferences in the summer, and leave the main new hardware for release in the fall. In other words, Apple's new spring products are getting closer and closer to us.
At this year's spring conference, what surprises will Apple bring us? As far as the currently known intelligence is concerned, the iPhone SE has not been updated for two years, and many people expect that the iPad Air for a whole year finally has new news, and the iMac Pro series seems to be appearing with the new M1 chip. In addition to these iterations, what exciting things will happen? Now let's take a rough look at the products that Apple is expected to release in the spring.
The new iPhone SE: Cheap, efficient, 5G network
Although 2021 has passed, the beginning of 2022 is still not very peaceful. The new crown variant Okmirjung began to appear frequently, and the epidemic situation around the world not only did not improve, but even showed signs of intensification. Personally, I think that this year, Apple will still focus on the network conference, and release new products in batches by holding multiple network conferences, when the fruit powder will usher in a sleepless carnival.
Recently, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman pointed out in the latest issue of the Power On column that the new iPhone SE will become the first product released by Apple this spring. Thinking about it, the last time Apple released the iPhone SE 2 was already the first half of 2020, considering the sales of the iPhone SE series, it is completely reasonable for Apple to hope to launch a new iPhone SE this year.
In terms of appearance, according to the latest rendering of the iPhone SE 3 jointly released by the well-known Apple whistleblower David Kowalski and foreign media TenTechReview, the back design of the new iPhone SE has not changed compared with the previous generation, but the front design has become more "modern", without a forehead, chin, and home button, and replaced by a "bang screen" and Face ID design that is very similar to the iPhone XR.
Interestingly, according to tianfeng international analyst Guo Mingxi, the new iPhone SE may have two versions, one of which is the so-called "comprehensive upgrade" exposed above, and the other product design is more conservative, the overall design and iPhone SE 2 are similar, using a traditional 4.7-inch LCD screen, retaining Touch ID fingerprint recognition, but will be equipped with a new processor to maintain competitiveness.
Although it is not clear which version of the upcoming iPhone SE will be, we can be sure of one thing, that is, the new iPhone SE is likely to be equipped with the "residual" version of the IPhone 13 A15 processor, with a Snapdragon X60M baseband and support for dual-mode 5G networks. If nothing else, the new iPhone SE will be the cheapest 5G version of the iPhone on the market, which is also the biggest selling point of this product.
However, apart from the chip, the other configurations of the new iPhone SE may have changed at all, with the same 12MP single camera as always, the single speaker as always, and the battery capacity as always. Such a simple product design is also a big tradition of the iPhone SE series.
Although the update range is small, Apple is not afraid. According to a report by analysts at JPMorgan Chase Bank, the initial pricing range of the new iPhone SE may be between $269 and $399, even if we take the highest value, plus import taxes, the domestic starting price of this new product is expected to drop to less than 3,000 yuan. Apple obviously hopes to attract more Android users to "defect" to the Apple camp through the classic "increase in volume and price reduction" route.
Xiao Lei believes that although the new iPhone SE is expected to sink the price of the 5G version of the iPhone to the 3K price segment, the old iPhone 8 series template, physical Home button, Touch ID fingerprint recognition are expected to fall behind today's mainstream mobile phone form, this product obviously belongs to the "leek model" that Cook clears the inventory in disguise. Fruit powder that really minds the "small screen" form should choose to buy the iPhone 13 mini to get the full experience.
However, as we all know, the main selling point of the iPhone SE series has never been a "small screen", but a "cost performance". Nowadays, 5G network is the trend of the times, even if the new iPhone SE uses the same "residual blood" version of the A15 processor as the iPhone 13, even if the other configurations of the new iPhone have not improved at all, but the 5G network + A15 processor can indeed meet the requirements of many users for the main machine. As long as the price is low enough, I personally think that the new iPhone SE will still be sought after by fruit powder.
New iPad Air: Just a regular upgrade
In the past two years, due to the new crown epidemic, the demand for remote work and online classes at home has soared, and "tablet computers" have become a popular product in the digital industry. It is true that Android tablets have improved a lot in recent years, but in the absence of developers and system adaptations, the experience of Android tablets and iPads does have a big gap, which is why Apple has been firmly on the first throne in the global tablet market in recent years.
In the iPad series, the iPad Air series has always been a cost-effective choice, neither as expensive as the iPad Pro series, nor as low as the iPad digital series, nor as low as the iPad mini series. However, since the end of 2020, the iPad Air series has not been new products, coupled with the recent emergence of a number of new iPad information in the Eurasian Economic Commission database, so Mark Gurman believes that the new iPad Air will arrive in this spring conference.
In terms of appearance, according to foreign media reports, the overall design of the new iPad Air will be the same as the current model. The product will feature the same right-angle bezel design as the previous generation of iPad Air, with a 10.9-inch screen and integrated fingerprint recognition into the power buttons.
Since the design has not changed, the upgrade focus of this product is naturally on the configuration. According to the news, the functional configuration of the new iPad Air is similar to that of the sixth-generation iPad mini, equipped with an A15 processor, the cellular data version supports 5G networks, the front lens is upgraded to a 12MP front wide-angle camera that supports the Center Stage function, and it is also equipped with a true color fill light.
Overall, the iPad Air 5 should be regarded as a regular upgrade, and it has not been directly transformed like the iPad Air 4. No high-brush screens, no narrowed bezels, no four speakers, no facial recognition. I have to say that since the new iPad Pro switched to the M1 chip, the old iPad Pro began to reduce the price across the board, the status of the iPad Air 4 is somewhat embarrassing. Judging from the currently exposed configuration, the new iPad Air should not increase the price, but this is far from enough, if this product still wants to remain attractive, then perhaps Apple should start from storage and color matching.
New iMac Pro: No M2, but also strong
Apple has been advancing the progress of self-developed chips, and this is another highlight of this spring new product launch. According to foreign media reports, after this update, it is expected that all apple computer products will use apple silicon chips with its own ARM architecture.
Since the discontinuation of the old iMac Pro at the beginning of last year, we have not received any news related to Apple's new iMac Pro. Recently, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman said that he believes that Apple hopes to launch the next Mac device equipped with M1 Pro processor in the first half of 2022, combined with various breaking news, this device is likely to be a new generation of iMac Pro.
In terms of appearance, the new iMac Pro may continue to use the same design language as the new iMac 24-inch, the screen bezel is narrower, and the thickness of the whole machine is thinner, but in order to highlight the business attributes, the machine is likely to only have two basic colors of space gray and silver.
In terms of screen, display analyst Ross Young believes that the display of the new iMac Pro will be greater than 27 inches, and the machine is expected to use a Mini LED display similar to the MacBook Pro, which can bring users richer color performance, higher contrast and brightness, while supporting a ProMotion refresh rate of up to 120Hz, which can adapt to the refresh rate according to the actual use scenario.
In terms of configuration, according to the news of the whistleblower @dylandkt, Apple is expected to launch a 12-core CPU version of the M1 chip, as a comparison, the original M1 chip uses an 8-core CPU, the M1 Pro chip uses an 8-core/10-core CPU, and the M1 Max uses a 10-core CPU. In this way, the new iMac Pro will be equipped with the most powerful Apple M1 chip on the market.
It is worth noting that as the highest positioning product online for Apple's Mac products, the new iMac Pro is not equipped with an "evolved" M2 chip. From this point of view, subject to the production problem of TSMC's 3nm/4nm process supply, the new MacBook Air and the new MacBook Pro using M2 chips are likely to appear later this year.
summary
Overall, Apple's new products this spring are still very interesting. In addition to the new iPhone SE that is highly anticipated by fruit fans, the new iPad Air series with upgraded configuration and the new iMac Pro with a new screen and processor are all promising products.
It is worth mentioning that, according to Mark Gurman, Apple will hold an unprecedented conference this fall to release the most new hardware products in the company's history, including the new iPhone 14 series, an upgraded version of the low-end MacBook Pro, a redesigned MacBook Air, a second-generation AirPods Pro, three Apple Watches, and a low-end iPad and new iPad Pro. If you're not satisfied with these "appetizers" this spring, this fall's launch is definitely worth looking forward to.