After rumors of a March 16 Apple event were thoroughly quashed by Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, it now appears the prediction was just a week off with DuanRui relaying a new March 23 event date from a Chinese leaker known as Kang, who has a solid recent history with Apple leaks (via PhoneArena).
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Jon Prosser has also thrown his support behind the new event date. While many are eager to see what Apple has to show off, OnePlus won’t be thrilled if this proves correct as it just announced its OnePlus 9 event for March 23. The highlight of the event is believed to be the release of a new iPad Pro that could deliver performance on par with the M1 MacBook Pro and MacBook Air and also serve as the debut for Apple’s mini-LED displays. However, there are a number of other Apple products that are expected to debut at the event. While AirTags (Apple’s answer to Tile) is beginning to have the almost mythical status that AirPower once enjoyed, repeated leaks suggest that they are at last ready for launch. Similarly, there have been rumors of third-generation AirPods coming soon but those predictions go well into last year. This month marks two years since the release of the current AirPods, so the rumored redesign is certainly due. It’s also been two years since the iPad mini was last refreshed and numerous rumors have suggested that it will also be getting an update, perhaps taking on more of the iPad Pro look like the iPad Air (2020). Going back to last March, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believed that the iPad mini would be one of the first Apple devices to include a mini-LED display, which would certainly be another convincing “Pro” upgrade for Apple’s smallest tablet. While Apple often doesn’t give extensive notice regarding its events, this has been doubly true with its all-digital events, so even if the March 23 event date is accurate, we wouldn’t expect to see Apple send out invites until around March 16.
