Following Monday’s rumors that Apple would make a rare January launch announcement today, more information has arrived regarding what we can expect. MacRumors reporter Sami Fathi confidently predicted that two new products will be sent to reviewers, rather than just one.
In response to the tweet, Fathi said a new iMac was unlikely to be shown (“not before M3, I think”), ruled out new monitors and joked about AirPower, but ultimately settled on the contenders. the most likely being the MacBook Pro and Mac mini, which matches our own predictions.
Since Fathi is a journalist (and social media manager) rather than a leaker, it’s unclear what his sources are for these predictions, or why he just thinks we’re getting these particular Macs, but presents the theory of both products as proven fact. But MacRumors as a whole seems surprisingly confident about the launch. In Monday’s report, which used a tweet from Jon Prosser as a starting point, the site said it could “corroborate an announcement that is expected to take place this week”, and that it had “also learned that Apple would hold briefings later this week with members of the press and media on the new devices,” once again declining to explain how he knew these things.
Even without specified sources, however, the seemingly independent corroboration between Prosser and MacRumors now makes this a strong prediction. Given the weight of unreleased products cluttering the treadmill, it makes sense that Apple would want to take advantage of a normally quiet month to announce some launches, though the lack of a dedicated event leads us to believe these won’t be. not revolutionary. some products; the spec bumps are appropriate for a press release, but a complete overhaul would be a surprise.
Because of this, the hugely important AR/VR headset is unlikely to make an appearance this week; instead, it’s expected to get the lion’s share of stage time during the spring event in March or April. The importance of this product, indeed, may be why Apple wants to release less exciting products by then.
Unexciting, but the next iterations of the Mac mini and MacBook Pro are still quietly important releases. The 2023 Mac mini is expected to feature an M2 processor with eight CPU cores and 10 GPU cores, and could feature a new, slimmer design (although a press release announcement makes that less likely). The 2023 MacBook Pro models, meanwhile, should remain “much the same” on the outside, but their internal upgrades will make them “worth the wait”, sources say.
