What's To Come From Apple in 2022?

Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Here's what I think Apple has in store for us in 2022.

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So there's some obvious things that Apple's going to be doing in 2022 and there are a lot of rumors as well. Let's start with the iMac. So right now we've got a 24" iMac.  It's a whole new machine that they introduced in '21 and its got these colors. It's super thin. It's really cool and it uses the M1 processor. It's really obvious that Apple is going to now have a larger iMac as well. The 27" iMac that they have now, that's still an Intel processor. They need to replace that with one that's going to use the newer Apple silicon processors. So there's probably going to be a larger screen iMac. 27" doesn't seem to cut it. I mean the lower one is 24 now. So I'm thinking it's going to be 29, 30, maybe even 32". It will probably be that 4½ or 5K screen and it's going to have a M1 Pro and M1 Max processor. So in other words it's going to be a desktop version of the recent MacBook Pros they came out with. Now Apple could make these look like the current iMacs. Have them be really thin and nice colors and all of that. They could also go in another direction. Stick with the metal. Make them look like the MacBook Pros and the iPad Pros and iPad Air. This will give them a very different feel than the lower end 24" iMacs. Now maybe, just maybe, they'll use the name iMac Pro. Now they last used that in 2017 for really expensive iMacs. It was probably just about 1 or 2% of total iMac sales. So unlike the MacBook Pro, which is the major line of MacBooks, the iMac Pro was this really minor line for high end use. However, it would make sense to have a low end 24" iMac than a high end 30" iMac Pro. They would put the same processors in the iMac Pro as they put in the MacBook Pros. I think that would be really great for consumers to be able to clearly see the difference between the iMac and the iMac Pro. But we'll have to see what Apple does. Either way I expect a new iMac model to be out in the Spring which will pretty much take care of almost all of the major Mac models. They will all be using Apple's silicon. They will have very few that use Intel processors. 

Now as far as MacBooks are concerned we've got a MacBook Air that's due for an update. We also have that 13" MacBook Pro model which is the weird one now because it has a Touch Bar. Apple is obviously moving away from that. It's also kind of hard to see where that 13" MacBook Pro fits in. It's smaller and cheaper than the 14" MacBook Pro but it's really not that much different than the MacBook Air. So what's Apple going to do with the whole line? Well, I definitely see Apple coming out with a new MacBook Air. But there's a lot of rumor sites that say it's going to have the next generation of the M Class Processors, the M2 in it. That's going to be really weird. So I'm not really sure what they are going to put in the MacBook Air. I just don't see them putting something in it called a M2 while the more expensive machines still have the number 1 in the processor name. If they take the Touch Bar out of the 13" MacBook Pro then how is it really any different than the MacBook Air. It will have fans in it and maybe a few other options but it's going to be a really weird model to have between the 14" MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air. What will make a lot more sense would be to not have a 13" model at all. A 14 and 16" MacBook Pros that cost a lot. If you want to save some money and get a cheaper model you get the MacBook Air. Unless Apple wants to reuse the name MacBook and come out with a new model to replace the 13" MacBook Pro that's just called the MacBook and make that the cheapest model, but not the lightest. I think the MacBook Air really needs to reclaim its original roots as being a super thin and light MacBook. Apple can do this now. They can create one that's basically the thickness of an iPad but with the keyboard. After all the iPad Pro has the same M1 processor in it. So why not. Why not have a really nice super thin MacBook Air. Have a thicker and heavier regular MacBook model that's actually cheaper and then have the current two MacBook Pro models that are much more expensive but much more powerful. But Apple's product lines don't always make that much sense. So we'll have to see. It's really hard to predict when they will come out with these. I can see maybe a new MacBook Air in the Spring. I could also imagine it coming out in the Fall. 

Now we also have to expect that Apple is going to come out with a new MacPro at some point, probably towards the end of the year. I has to get their new processor into it. But how? The old MacPros, like the one I currently have, the whole deal is that you could have this powerful Intel processor in it and then a GPU that's super powerful. But Apple's silicon doesn't use external GPUs. The GPUs are part of the chip. So they got the M1 Mac's processor. They could put that in it but then the MacPros are really not much better than the high end MacBook Pro and maybe a future iMac as well. They could come out with a special processor. Maybe the M1 Ultra and that could be in it and have a ton of CPU's and GPU's on this one chip. A crazy idea I have is they could actually have a machine that has both a M1 Max and an Intel Xeon processor in it. If you're running an app that requires Intel it runs on that Intel chip. The Intel chip also has a really fast GPU external to it so you've got all of that on the MacPro. It would make for a really expensive machine but Apple's never been afraid to have a really expensive MacPro model. 

I should point out there are a lot of divergent rumors on the MacPro. One says that the model is going to be a lot smaller but maybe there will also be a larger model as well if you want to add a lot of drives and things into it. Another rumor suggests that Apple will have both an Intel MacPro and a Apple processor MacPro and you can choose which one you want to get. Another thing to pay attention to is that I think most people that get MacPros are video editors. Apple has this special card in the MacPro called the After Burner Card and it just speeds up Final Cut Pro. That alone probably will sell a ton of them. Now since the After Burner is something Apple develops maybe it will come with a M1 Max Processor with a special Apple silicon After Burner on it. So, you've got the M1 Max but you also have this special processor that just works with Final Cut Pro. 

I know I'm going to get asked about a new Mac Mini. You can go two ways on this. You can look at the history of the Mac Mini and say Apple loves to go years without updating it and think that they are just going to stick with the current Mac Mini. We'll have nothing new this year. Other people say it would be great to have a Mac Mini with a M1Pro or M1Max processor in it. But Apple doesn't really like to put this super high end stuff inside the Mac Mini. That's for the Mac Pro. So I'm not sure which direction they are going to go in. I mean if they produce a Mac Mini with the M1Max in it that's going to be great. I'm sure we will all love it! But Apple is going to have to charge an arm and a leg for that else it will cannibalize their other line. The whole point of the Mac Mini is for it to be cheap. So I just don't see that happening. I'm not really sure if we're going to see a new Mac Mini and if we do what will be in it. 

Okay, so 2022 will be the year of the iPhone 14, of course. What's the iPhone 14 going to be? How's it going to be better than the iPhone 13? Well, camera is always a differentiator. Apple is always improving the cameras particularly in the Pro models of the iPhone. Now rumor has it that Apple is going to upgrade the wide-angle camera to a 48 megapixel camera up from the 12 megapixels we have now. The reason they would do that is to enable 8K video recording. Now this kind of makes sense but I just don't know if we're ready for 8K recording on an iPhone. I mean it would be great to have. I would love it. But I don't think Apple is going to sell any more or less if they do that in 2022 or 2023. So why rush it. There's also talk of the telephoto lens actually becoming a periscope lens. So it actually bends light into it so you, kind of, instead of having a long lens of a camera it bends it and it goes like in an L shape into the body of the camera allowing you to do telephoto up to say 10X. That would be great. I would love that. There are already some android phones that have that. 

Now just like every year there are rumors that Apple is going to get rid of the Notch and maybe just have a small hole in the screen so the camera comes through a hole instead of this big notch at the top of the screen. We'll have to see whether Apple can do that and actually keep the size of the iPhone pretty thin because you have to fit a lot of stuff underneath the thickness of the screen in order to just have a hole for a camera. 

As for iPads, Apple is most likely to come out with new versions of every iPad model except the Mini because they just came out with a new Mini. So we're probably going to see new iPad Pros, a new regular standard cheap iPad and also a new iPad Air. But it's unclear what new features will be in these rather than just upgrading the processors and maybe the screens on some of them. One thing they could do is introduce wireless magnetic charging with those since the iPhones have them and it makes sense to have them in the iPad. It still feels weird to plug my iPad Mini in alongside my iPhone that's just stuck onto a MagSave Charger. 

As for the Apple Watch you always look towards what new sensor they can add into it. There's talk of a blood glucose sensor, a blood pressure sensor, a body temperature sensor, sleep apnea, and maybe even the ability to check a car crash, not just for the watch but maybe for the phone as well. So if Apple is looking for something to introduce that's new in 2022 maybe one of these sensors will be it. 

Other than that there are also rumors that Apple is going to have a third model. Right now we've got two different sizes. But Apple may come out with a third model that's especially designed to be super rugged. So for use for athletes or people that have jobs where the watch may get easily damaged. 

What about new products? Well, the one that's getting the most play on the rumor site is having Apple glasses. So the idea here is that these would be augmented reality glasses. Not necessarily the VR goggles. So the difference is one would look like regular glasses like this. You put them on and you would see through them. Then overlaid on what you see you could see other things. Like notifications, the time, the temperature, arrows, things like that. That's augmented reality. It's very different than virtual reality goggles which are big bulky things that you wear on your face that block out all regular vision and replace it with a 3D view of a game or whatever it is you're watching. I don't really see Apple entering the VR goggles arena. I see them doing AR glasses. Apple has been super successful with wearables like the watch and AirPods. Taking some of that technology and putting them into glasses makes a lot of sense. They know how to make their own processors and they could make them really small. They know how to do really cool stuff with batteries like the ones in the AirPods. They have also been working on software for years that's available to developers to develop AR apps. So they have been priming a lot of developers for making things that could appear in glasses. 

Now they could do some cool stuff with this. For instance, if you're wearing some of these you could actually control them by using gestures. So it recognizes that your hand is swiping from right to left and it dispenses of a notification. Or you tic off something like that or like this. You could actually see your hands using lidar here and using the gestures so you can control what you see. That's the way I think Apple is going to go. In addition to that I think a lot of the use for these is going to be when you're sitting at your Mac. Instead of putting them on and walking down the street and getting directions you're sitting at your desk and on your Mac's screen you'd see some overlays, like maybe the cursor is actually 3d and hovering above the screen. Maybe as you Drag and Drop something you'll actually see it lift off the screen. You're seeing them through here and then drop down somewhere else. It could be a real interesting way to extend the capabilities of the Mac and even the iPad and iPhone through wearing glasses and having the two talk to each other. 

Okay so that will be really cool if that happens. I wouldn't bet on it for 2022. Maybe '23, '24 we'll see. But there are some other rumors about new Apple displays. Apple hasn't come out with a consumer display in a long time. They have their high end Pro display but there's some rumors that they will come out with a display that will basically look like the iMac model except without a computer in them. They're just the displays. So you could buy them alongside the Mac Mini or more likely you get them to have an extra display with your MacBook Pro. I don't know if Apple is finally going to do this or not but I can tell you that if they do it I can make two easy predictions. One is that there are going to be very expensive and critics are going to hit them hard how expensive they are compared to third party screens. The second prediction is, of course, that Apple won't be able to build them fast enough to keep them in stock. 

Okay, So there are my predictions for what Apple is going to do in 2022. Leave your predictions in the comments below and have a Happy New Year!