Spring has arrived, and it is the season of new product launches.
March 3, in the early morning of this morning, Apple officially issued an invitation to the media to hold a spring conference at 12:00 central time on March 8 (2:00 a.m. Beijing time on March 9). The campaign, which is called "Peek Performance," is still expected to be digitally streamed on Apple's website, with domestic viewers able to go to Apple's official website or major live-streaming platforms to watch.
It has to be said that for domestic consumers, the time point of two in the morning is definitely not friendly, and compared with the traditional autumn conference, the equipment released by Apple every spring is relatively less important to the company. However, considering that this is Apple's first conference in 2022, there will be many people watching it even if it is late.
So at this year's spring conference, what surprises will Apple bring us? According to the currently known information, we will usher in a series of new hardware products at this conference, in addition to the highly anticipated iPhone SE and MacBook Air series of new products, there may be a mysterious new product shining on the scene. Now let's take a rough look at the new products that you might see at Apple's spring conference.
iPhone SE 3: The cheapest 5G iPhone
Judging from the current news, the iPhone SE 3 is definitely one of the most likely and highly anticipated products to appear in this launch event.
If you think about it, it's been two years since Apple last released the iPhone SE 2. Considering the sales of the iPhone SE series, it makes perfect sense that Apple wants to launch a new iPhone SE this year.
However, although the existence of the product is a basic certainty, the predictions given by various media outlets regarding the design of the iPhone SE 3 are very different.
One of the predictions said that the iPhone SE 3 will be based on the iPhone XR design for transformation, the whole machine will be upgraded to a full-screen design, the screen will be upgraded to a 6.1-inch iPhone 11 same screen, equipped with A15 chips, and support dual CARD dual standby, just like this concept map.
Another prediction is more conservative, iPhone SE 3 will look exactly like the previous generation of products, continue to reproduce the design of the iPhone 8/ iPhone SE 2, but the core configuration is replaced by A15 processors, officially supporting 5G networks.
Judging from the reaction on social media, many fruit fans are looking forward to a full-screen cheap iPhone, and Xiao Lei himself hopes that it can join the full-screen. Unfortunately, as the news from the supply chain becomes clearer, we can basically confirm that the iPhone SE 3 will only disappoint again, and it is very likely... It is what the second prediction looks like.
In other words, the main improvement of the iPhone SE 3 is the A15 processor and the supporting 5G network support. In addition to the chip, the other configurations of the Phone SE 3 may have changed basically, as always 12MP single camera, as always single speaker, as always battery capacity, only the starting storage space may be increased to 128GB.
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.
Only 3,000 yuan, you can experience the ultimate performance of the A15 processor, where is such a good deal? As long as the price is low enough, I personally think that the new iPhone SE will still be sought after by fruit powder, but the experience of using a 5G mobile phone with a 3000mAh battery will not be too good to think.
The new MacBook series: colorful
Last year, the new MacBook Pro 14 and 16 changed the design over the years, giving fruit powder a refreshing feel. Judging from the current rumors on the market, Apple very much hopes to be able to reproduce this feeling on the MacBook Air product line that is more affordable.
According to the news of foreign media MacRumors, Apple will adopt a colorful back cover design on the new MacBook Air series, similar to the color matching of the 24-inch iMac released in the same period last year, and it is expected that there will be 7 colors such as blue, green, pink, silver, yellow, orange and purple.
In addition to the color scheme, the new MacBook Air will be equipped with a 13.3-inch Mini LED screen, the R corner becomes more rounded, the bezels become narrower, but it will not use the bangs design used on the MacBook Pro. The Mini LED screen will bring higher screen quality to the new MacBook Air, including darker blacks, brighter brightness, richer colors and higher contrast, which can meet the needs of professionals.
Looking at the configuration, according to the previous news, subject to the output problem of TSMC's 3nm/4nm process supply, the new MacBook Pro using M2 chips is likely to appear later this year. In this way, the new MacBook Air is likely to use a modified version of the M1 chip, which is more than enough for a thin and light book that uses passive heat dissipation.
Purple version of the iPhone 13 Pro: new bottle of old wine
The above revelations, everyone or many have heard about it earlier.
What really made netizens explode was the purple version of the iPhone 13 Pro that was only exposed the day before.
At last year's spring conference, Apple released the purple iPhone 12/12 mini for the first time ever, which was the first time ever that Apple had launched a new colored iPhone at the spring conference. Although the product parameters have not changed, the release of the new color matching has indeed injected some fresh air into this product that has been released for half a year, and the overall look and feel is eye-catching.
Having tasted the sweetness of the apple, it seems that it is very eager to recreate the successful experience of the past today perfectly. According to the @rendersbynai of extranet sources, in addition to the basic iPhone SE 3, Apple will also launch a purple version of the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max next week, and put out a series of renderings on Twitter.
Judging from the pictures provided by the blogger, the purple of this year's iPhone 13 is somewhat different from last year's iPhone 12 purple, and the overall color saturation will be higher, that is to say, it will be thicker and darker, and it is more appropriate to call it dark purple.
It is worth mentioning that the purple version this time may be limited to the high-end iPhone 13 Pro series. Judging from the rendering, the purple frosted glass with the stainless steel metal frame looks particularly bright and gorgeous, and the texture performance is very outstanding, giving people a noble and ethereal feeling. Judging from the reaction on Weibo, the purple version of the iPhone 13 Pro is far more attractive than the Far Peak Blue color color promoted by Apple.
Apple VR Headset: Unexpected Mystery Easter Eggs?
Speaking of Apple's mysterious new products, what could be more suitable than an Apple VR headset that has been in preparation for many years? Recently, Apple's patent for "facial joint and head-mounted display" has been authorized in China. From the abstract, the patent relates to a facial joint for a head-mounted display, which is obviously the removable face pad of the Apple VR headset.
Recently, Jermaine Smit, a foreign god, used this information to produce a set of rendering animations. As can be seen from the picture, the overall appearance of the Apple VR headset is similar to the goggles, the front is a whole curved black panel, and the part that is in contact with the face is similar to the fabric material of AirPods Max, which helps to fit the face and improve the comfort of wearing.
In addition, well-known analyst Guo Mingxi has previously reported that Apple's VR headset will be equipped with up to 15 cameras for tracking and collecting biometric data. Among them, eight cameras will be used to project images to the real world, six cameras will be used for biometrics, and the last camera will be used for environmental detection, the overall configuration is quite good or bad, obviously not a product that can be launched in a short period of time.
Although Apple's VR/AR headset devices have been hyped up by the outside world, Apple has been officially registering various patent information related to VR/AR, but they have never officially announced related products. Xiao Lei believes that Apple VR Glass will not necessarily be officially launched at this conference, but Easter eggs related to Apple VR are still very likely.
Playing with color is Apple's next big move
Every year at the press conference, Apple will hide some AR Easter eggs on its official website, and this year is no exception.
According to MacRumors, as long as you visit Apple's official webpage with your iPhone or iPad, you can see the logo logo of the AR augmented reality version created by Apple. Such a nested Apple Logo logo containing shades such as yellow, orange, red, pink and purple, in addition to showing off Apple's own AR technology, is more to give a hint of an event theme.
"Colorful" is obviously the theme of this year's Apple Spring Conference.
From the new iMac 24-inch with a colorful shell design, to the separate release of the purple version of the iPhone 12 series, to the HomePod mini with three new bright colors, the purple iPhone 13 Pro/iPhone 13 Pro Max, and the upcoming new colorful MacBook Air series products, in recent years, Apple seems to be going farther and farther in the pursuit of new colors.
Why is that? Such questions may arise in your mind. In fact, the answer is very simple, everything is just a sharp word. Last year, Apple launched the purple version of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini, on the night of the release, there were more than 100,000+ users in Jingdong reservation, and this is not counting the sales of Apple's official, Taobao and other e-commerce platforms, it can be seen that fruit fans are very fond of purple, which is a low-key and luxurious color
Perhaps it is precisely because the purple version of the iPhone 12 sold well last year, so this year Apple decided to repeat the same trick. Judging from the reaction of domestic social media, netizens' attention to the purple version of the iPhone 13 is quite high, and even many netizens say that they like this color. By introducing a new color version to extend the sales cycle of iPhones, thereby offsetting the impact of the traditional off-season on sales, Apple's strategy is likely to take effect again.
Not only that, in recent years, Apple has been very stingy to please consumers from innovation. From the iPhone 11, iPhone 12 to the iPhone 13 series, the design of successive generations of main products has not made design innovations, and the epoch-making surprise brought by the smart phone that pulls out the laptop from the kraft paper bag and releases the touch screen seems to have disappeared.
In order to bring a sense of surprise to users, apple can only focus on the colorful product color matching. According to a survey published on Twitter by well-known foreign media, nearly 75% of fruit fans said they liked the colorful MacBook Air more. The new product color matching will obviously bring users a new sense of surprise, and naturally it will attract people's attention more.
Most importantly, these colors are not arbitrarily chosen by manufacturers, but through a large number of market research and analysis, taking into account the user's consumption habits and future trends. For us, more color schemes mean a richer choice. In today's personality, choosing a product color that meets our preferences is also a way for us to express ourselves. Perhaps Apple has captured this psychology of users and wants to use "colorful" to add a fresh color to our ordinary lives.