Apple’s March event might bring several days of surprises

We now know the date of Apple’s next event-type thing: March 4. But as ever, we won’t know the precise details or the products the company plans to announce until it chooses to make that information public.

Unusually, however, there’s a good chance that Apple will tell us about the new products first and host the event (or, to use the company’s preferred terminology, the “experience”) after. Because one respected pundit has put forward the theory that Apple will announce new iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks via press release on Monday to Wednesday of that week, before journalists and influencers are gathered for a hands-on session with the hardware.

John Gruber, writing on his Daring Fireball blog, ponders the large number of Apple releases that are expected in the next few months. We’re waiting for the iPhone 17e, he notes, new versions of the entry-level iPad (with an A18 or A19 chip) and iPad Air (with an M4), M5 Pro and Max MacBook Pro, M5 MacBook Air, and the rumored low-cost MacBook with an A18 chip. That’s a lot to fit into a single event. Perhaps too much.

“What strikes me is that March 4—the ‘experience’ day—is a Wednesday,” Gruber writes. “So my spitball guess is that they announce all these products via Newsroom press releases, day-by-day. Like, say, the iPhone 17e on Monday, new iPad(s) on Tuesday, and new MacBooks on Wednesday. And then the ‘experience’ will be a hands-on thing with in-person demos.”

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who is generally keyed into Apple’s product launches, responded on X, saying Gruber’s guess “is exactly what I am expecting based on what I’ve heard.” Gurman has previously reported that Apple had a product launch slated for March 2.

There is a precedent for this sort of serial press release strategy. At the end of October 2024, Apple sent out announcements on consecutive days for the M4 iMac (October 28), M4 Mac mini (October 29), and M4 Pro and M4 Max MacBook Pro (October 30). The company even called this an “exciting week of announcements,” even though it only lasted for three days and wasn’t especially exciting, focusing only on the Mac section of its product portfolio. A week of announcements covering the iPhone, iPad, and Mac might do a better job of qualifying for that adjective.