Apple sent invites for a March 4 “special Apple Experience” in New York, London, and Shanghai. There’s no livestream, which is weird.
Apple has been doing polished video presentations for years. They get millions of views and generate tons of press coverage. Why abandon that for closed-door sessions?
The obvious guess is M5 Macs. Some products already have M4 chips from last year, so updates to the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air make sense. But chip refreshes usually get a press release, not international events.
The budget MacBook rumor is more interesting. Reports say Apple might launch a $699 MacBook with an A18 Pro chip instead of M-series silicon.
That would fill a gap in the lineup, but it also creates a problem for the iPad Pro, which costs more and does less than a laptop.
iPads are supposedly getting updates, too. The Air moves from M3 to M4. The base model gets a newer chip. The mini might get OLED and an A20 Pro, which sounds like a bigger upgrade than the others.
The iPhone 17e keeps showing up in rumors. It was supposed to launch in February. That didn’t happen. Apple doesn’t typically soft-launch new iPhone models at March media events anyway.
Also: iOS 26 hit 66% adoption despite having 23 extra days—still couldn’t match iOS 18 numbers
Desktop Macs aren’t likely. The iMac and Mac mini got M4 updates recently. The Mac Studio was refreshed last year. The Mac Pro seems abandoned at this point.
The choice of format for this event is what bothers me. Apple wants press coverage but won’t stream it publicly, which usually means they’re unsure about something.
Maybe they’re testing the reaction to the budget MacBook before committing to a full launch. Maybe there’s an AI feature that needs an in-person demonstration.
I remember back in the days when Steve Jobs would take the stage and act as if every announcement were world-changing. Now we’re getting invite-only sessions with no recording allowed.
Anyway, the Apple Experience starts at 9:00 am ET on March 4, 2026, so make sure you check back in then for all the latest announcements.
