Apple's 2022 Spring event: New iPhone SE, iPad Air, Mac PCs expected

Apple is expected to announce a new range of devices across categories on March 8 in what it's calling its Spring event, as it coincides with the start of the spring season. This is also Apple’s first event of the year, which explains the buzz around it. 

Though Apple hasn’t said anything on what it’s going to unveil at this event, industry experts believe that the company is going to launch a new iPhone in the ‘SE’ series along with a new iPad Air, Mac mini and a notebook in the MacBook Air series.

At last year’s Spring event, held in April 2021, Apple had launched a 24-inch iMac, iPad Pro and AirTag.  Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, believes that the upcoming event’s tagline “peek performance” says it all. “The phrase clearly indicates some speed increases for Apple devices. That would cover 5G and faster main processors on the new iPhone, iPad and Mac,” said Gurman. 

Here are the key announcements expected at the event.

Low-cost iPhone

After a long wait, Apple has started to expand its footprint in emerging markets including India. Last year Apple doubled its market share and sold close to 6 million iPhones, its highest ever in India, as per Counterpoint. Though the previous generation iPhones have been the key growth driver, the iPhone SE has always been quite popular in emerging markets as it allows users entry into the Apple ecosystem without paying a premium price. 

Equipped with 5G, improved camera sensors and new A15 Bionic chipset, the new iPhone SE can help the company push more iPhones in these markets. The last iPhone SE was launched in 2020, which also means that an upgrade was coming. There is some speculation on the design of the new iPhone. Some believe Apple may introduce the notch-based design in the SE, others doubt it as Apple wouldn’t want to dilute the appeal of its premium segment by replicating the same design on a low-cost device. 

5G ready iPad Air

The iPad Air is also due for an upgrade. The last device in the Air lineup was launched in September 2020 and runs on the previous gen A14 Bionic processor and 4G. The iPad Air series is positioned as a low-cost alternative to iPad Pro for users looking for a big screen (10-inch and above) tablet. With the iPad Mini (8.3-inch) launched in September 2021, it makes sense to upgrade the Air lineup too and make it more appealing with a new A15 Bionic chip and 5G support. Experts believe Apple will retain the design of its predecessor. 

Faster Mac PCs

Apple is also expected to update the Mac PC lineup and launch a new Mac mini, a 13-inch MacBook Pro and even an iMac powered by the new chips in the M1 series. The last upgrade in the Mac mini series was seen in November 2020 when Apple launched two devices with the M1 chip, which didn’t cut ice with many users who found its performance to be quite underwhelming as compared to Intel chips. Experts believe Apple will launch a new Mac mini with the improved and more powerful M1 Pro and M1 Max chips that were released last year.

The MacBook Air is also expected to get a makeover in terms of design and hardware. The last MacBook Air was launched in 2020 with the M1 chip. It is believed that Apple may launch the new Air laptop with a M1 Pro or Max chip or with a soon to be launched M2 chip. 

Bloomberg’s Gurman believes a fourth “wild card” unveiling is possible. “This could range from the announcement of a next-generation monitor to the iMac Pro or new, smaller iMac Pro,” he added. According to experts, Apple has been working on an upgraded version of its 27-inch iMac.