Apple’s October 22nd Event

It’s pundit/forecaster time again!

I did this for the September 10th event and had a mixed record. Both my locks hit, and I was 1 for 2 on my “likely” predictions, got none of the things I was hoping for, and correctly called 4 of the 5 in the “Not So Much” category. Not too bad. My miss in the “Not So Much” category was a partial miss, as there wasn’t anything at that event on the iMacs, but there was a refresh in late September, and I predicted November.

As a brief reminder, here’s the current state of the MacRumors Buyer’s Guide, and there’s still quite a bit of red here:

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So, what am I predicting/hoping for? Well, something like this:

Locks
• iPad 5. This is pretty much a done deal; full case designs have been floating around the Net for a while now. I predict an A7X processor, same screen resolution, slightly smaller and lighter form factor (less bezel), and probably a somewhat improved camera, but not of the same class as the 5S. I’m guessing TouchID as well. Availability pretty soon after the event.

• iPad mini. It’s a lock that something will happen here. The less-certain question: Retina or not? I’m going to go way out on a limb here and suggest that Apple will bifurcate this product line, maintaing a lower-cost mini without a Retina display; almost immediate availability on this. Then, a “mini Pro” (not with that name) that has a Retina display and costs more. Apple hasn’t done this with iPads but has for MacBook Pros for some time, and so I think there’s precedent for it. The Retina mini will come out a bit later—maybe two weeks after the regular mini—but in time for the holiday shopping season.

• Mac Pro. This was my miss from last time, but I Apple is now running out of “fall” for a release timeframe, so I think this has to be the event for it. Availability will not be immediate, though, but again, in time for the holiday season (though that matters less for this one). Mind-blowing performance with similarly mind-blowing price, which will also be revealed. As noted, work owes me a new machine so I will be on this thing like white on rice.

• OS X Mavericks. Will ship coincident with the Mac Pro, mid-to-late November, because the Pro will require it.

Likely
• New Apple TV. Probably an A6 inside and maybe mild bump to memory and GPU, otherwise not too much different in terms of specs. I expect a facelift for the OS to look more like iOS 7. My guess is still no generic third-party app support, but if so, I’d order it immediately. If there’s no third-party support, then immediate availability. If there is, then I’d say mid-to-late November.

• MacBook Pros. I wasn’t high on these for the September event and I’m still not sure, but the rumor mill has been churning, and people seem to think this is more likely now. I’m going to guess Haswell processors, faster PCIE Express, general performance bump, but nothing too radical.

• iPod Classic. I’m guessing this will officially be dropped, though it won’t actually be announced that this is happening.

Still Not So Much
• Mac mini. I will quote myself from my September 10th prediction: “Apple has been letting the update cycle on these go longer than most of their other product lines. I’d guess late Spring or early Summer for this.” I’ll stand by that again.

• New displays. My guess is that 4K displays are coming from Apple, but not yet. I’m going to guess summer or fall of next year.

• MacBook Air. Nothing here as well. Again, probably next summer.

• iWatch. I doubt it. I think Apple execs are probably enjoying the crap out of the horrible reviews for the Galaxy Gear and are in no hurry to stop other vendors from putting out misguided guesses for a while.

• Bigger iPad. There are rumors about of a larger iPad. I’m going to guess that this might be coming next year, but again, not yet.