To see what went down in 2025, read the article here
2025 was a crazy year. The United States swore in a new president who immediately made significant changes, including those that have impacted the tech industry. Like merchant captains in the Foundation series, tech titans had to curtsy to the new king. For the first time in history, Apple gifted a golden tribute to curry favour with the president. And that’s just the politics part.
AI exploded in 2024 and went into overdrive in 2025. Key players started plowing billions into AI, building new data centers, and machines began competing for natural resources against humans. Speculation of a bubble begins to creep, with the dread of the even greater impact when it explodes.
So, what can we expect Apple to bring us in 2026? Certainly, new chips to power our beloved devices, hopefully a new product to excite us, and maybe big changes to shake things up. Certain challenges awaits us for 2026. Component prices rise due to the AI building frenzy, making Apple’s upgrade prices look reasonable. There’s also talk about a major leadership change in 2026. 2025 was a very interesting year, and 2026 is set to be another one.
Apple Events
There is talk about leadership change for Apple in 2026, but do remember, Apple is a very, very big ship. Even when you turn the steering wheel today, it will take months to turn the ship around. A lot of product research, development, and release have been planned for years. Apple products are not cutting-edge, but they produce high-quality consumer products. Their release schedule is buttoned down to a science.
| Season | Month | Expected | Actual Event Date | What Actually Happened |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring | January / March | Mac updates: MacBook Air M5, MacBook Pro M5 Pro / M5 Max, iMac M5, Mac Mini M5 / M5 Pro, Mac Studio M5 Max / M4 Ultra | ||
| Summer | May / June | iPad Pro M6, iPad, iPad Air, New displays? WWDC 2027 (Software Updates), Apple Glasses? | ||
| Fall | September | iPhone 18, iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone Air 2, Apple Watch Series 12, new AirPods? | ||
| Winter | October | MacBook Pro M6, Other updates? |
Product Update
Apple announced new announcements every quarter while remaining low-key through the rest of the year.
Q1: M5 Leftovers Update
Apple creates a lot of successful products like the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. But they also create a lot of silent successful products like the ecosystem. One of the most recent successful silent products is the Apple Silicon. In the mobile space, it is the chip to beat. It was so good that it gave the most bang for your buck in terms of price/performance ratio.
The M5 was introduced in late 2025 for the MacBook Pro. We expect Apple to trickle down the M5 on their other entry-level Macs, like the Mac Mini, iMac, and the popular MacBook Air. If we are lucky, we might get a cheaper MacBook Air that is powered by an iPhone 17 Pro chip.
Apple most likely will introduce the higher-end Apple Silicon, like the M5 Pro and the M5 Max, for the MacBook Pro and the Mac Mini. Mac Studio might see an update with the M5 Max and possibly the M4 Ultra.
Q2: WWDC and Maybe Apple Glasses
In the hot summer month of June, Apple hosts their WWDC at their headquarters, Apple Park. The event mostly focused on software updates, although hardware updates do appear, although they haven’t for a while.
Apple now prefers to release new hardware updates around 1 month before WWDC. Here we usually see iPads being updated. Apple now introduces a new generation of Apple Silicon on the iPad Pro. Hence there will be a great change in a M6 iPad Pro. The M6 should be Apple’s (and the world’s) first consumer 2nm chip.
The big question is what Apple is doing with the Vision Pro. It has been known that the Vision Pro is a flop. Apple updated the Vision Pro in late 2025. The only update is the new M5 chip and a new strap. There was a buzz last year with Meta AI Glasses. So the question is whether Apple is going to hold steadfast on completely immersive VR glasses or go mainstream with light AR glasses. If Apple is going to introduce light AR glasses, it will be a major software change, which will be a session at WWDC.
Another question is what Apple is doing with its displays. Display Pro XDR was quite advanced when it was released, but display tech has also progressed. Will Apple finally update its displays?
Q3: iPhone, actually
September is the most important month for Apple. It is the time when Apple updates its best-selling product in history: the iPhone.
As far as sales figures go, the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro are a smashing success. It cannot be said the same for the iPhone Air. Despite all that, Apple will most likely update the iPhone Air to fix the “problems” in the first generation. Apple is still finding the elusive 3rd category of iPhones to boost its sales.
We might see new AirPods or other iPhone accessories at the event. The new Apple Watch is also a must.
Q4: M6, the first 2nm chip
Things will wind down by the end of 2026. Apple most likely will update the Mac line, introducing the new M6 chip on select models, just in time for the all-important holiday season.
In 2025, Apple gave a press release about putting M5 chips on the MacBook Pro. No fancy video, just a tweet here and there.
Conclusion
Big changes will come if Tim Cook decides to step down and make way for new blood. Of course, those changes won’t come fast, but sooner or later, they will make an impact.
Right now, AI is propping up the US economy. If the AI bubble decides to burst in 2026, a lot of things will change.
- Prediction: Being Apple’s best selling product in history, of course the latest technology will be focused on the iPhone 17 Pro that will push the boundaries of what is possible in a rectangle glass sandwich.
- Actual: iPhone 16e released in early 2025, replacing the iPhone SE.
iPhone 17 Predictions
Plus out, Air in: Apple released a “Mini” version of the standard iPhone for the 12 and 13 model years. Due to lackluster sales, Apple opts for “Plus” version of the standard iPhone for 14, 15, and 16 model years. The word on the street is those “Plus” models are not selling well, so there’s a rumor going on that Apple is trying for a more stylish model of the iPhone, which will called “Air”
48MP on Ultrawide: One of Apple’s standard practice is to have features from the previous Pro iPhones to trickle-down to the base iPhone. In this case, the 48MP sensor on the Ultrawide lens will surely make its way to the base iPhone.
iPhone 17 Pro Predictions
Despite the higher price, the iPhone Pro models remains on of Apple’s strong seller, accounting just slightly half of all iPhones sales year after year. The iPhone Pro 17 is expected to be popular amogst users who wanted a powerful camera in their hands.
Here are some of the expected features of the upcoming iPhone 17 Pro / iPhone 17 Pro Max
- A19 Pro chip: If TSMC schedule to be believed, Apple will launch their first 2nm chip on the A19 and A19 Pro processor. It is expected the A19 Pro will have more graphic cores and a media pipeline to handle the extra processing from their camera sensors.
- 48MP image sensor on telephoto: Apple introduced a new 48MP sensor on the Ultrawide sensor and a 5x magnification on the telephoto lens. It is expected that Apple will eventually put a 48MP sensor on the telephoto sensor, which theoretically can double the optical magnification to 10x.
- Larger camera array: Apple engineers have found ways to bend the laws of physics, but there’s so much you can do. To make the sensor more sensitive to low light situations, one of the surest ways is to make the sensors and lenses bigger to collect more light.
- Smaller dynamic island: The FaceID sensor array has been modified of the years to be smaller. A few years ago, they made Dynamic Island: punch hole screen and clever animation that makes use of the punch hole. It is expected that Apple aims to make Dynamic Island smaller.
- All haptic buttons: Apple introduced a new button, Camera Controls, which is a haptic button with touch-sensitive controls. It is reported that Apple has been working on making all of the buttons into haptics, meaning the buttons do not move, but there’s a special vibrator to mimic the sensation of pressing a button. The result would make the iPhone one solid piece of glass sandwich, increasing the quality and feel of the iPhone.
- eSIM only: With eSIM adoption on the rise, Apple is hoping to make future models of the iPhone an eSIM-only model, just like in the US. While there will be some places where you still need to use a physical SIM card, in advanced markets like the EU, US, and Japan,eSIM is widely adopted.
Prediction: New iPad Pro with M5 chip before WWDC 2025, iPad Air with M3, and the rest is status quo. iPad might, just might updated to iPad 11. Possibly the first iPad with the M1 chip.
Actual: iPad Air and iPad updated in March 2025. iPadOS 26 brings the iPad closer to macOS functionality as ever with multi-window environment, background tasks amongst others.
- iPad Problems: good content consumer device, not good content producer
- problem is the crippling iPadOS, which was designed as a seperate branch of iOS to unleash the power of iPad, but Apple still maintain tight controls over everything, limiting their usefulness for developers.
- iPad might be updated
- iPad Pro with M5 chip
Prediction: MacBook Air will be updated in early 2025. Mac Studio and Mac Pro with M4 Max and M4 Ultra during WWDC 2025. Will there be M4 Extreme? Maybe not. M5 will debut on Macs at the end of the year.
Actual: Mac Studio was updated to include M4 Max and M3 Ultra. Mac Pro still runs on M2 Ultra though.
Apple Silicon has been a godsend for Apple. Not only does it bestow Apple vertical control on the Mac, but it also allows Apple to create unique products which they can charge a premium for. Apple Silicon is the cumulation of the continuous effort to create unique products which started when they think about the first iPad where they launched the first Apple-designed silicon, the A4.
- MacBook Air: Apple’s best selling laptop, the MacBook Air, is expected to be updated in early 2025. It is most likely the MacBook Air is going to run an M4 chip instead of M5.
- Mac Studio & Mac Pro: Top-of-the-line desktop is expected to update during WWDC 2025, developer-focused event
- Other Macs: MacBook Pro will be updated by the end of the year, right before the shopping season
- M5, M5 Pro, M5 Max: While M5 will be introduced early 2025, M5 Pro and M5 Max will be introduced end of 2025. Based on TSMC roadmap, a major supplier of chips to Apple, it expected that M5 will feature 3rd generation 3nm construction, not 2nm. That should be on the iPhone.
- User upgradable parts: As evidance by the latest Mac Mini, some of the parts can be potentially user upgradable. However, it won’t be as easy as the olden days, but still possible.
Prediction: Lower cost model to increase the Vision take up rates. Rollout to more countries.
Vision is Apple’s new product line that aim to tackle an emerging market called spatial computing. Apple first product, the Vision Pro, is Apple’s first attempt to capture this market.
The first spatial computing product was unveiling in WWDC 2023 but was only available to the public at end of January 2024. Priced at $3,500 the Vision Pro is not for the mass market. In an interview, Tim Cook has said that Vision Pro is targeted at early adpoters. With Apple being the most valuable company on the planet with market valuation hitting $4 trillion at end of 2024, Apple is the company that can afford to play the long game.
While we are not holding our breath with Vision (Pro) updates, we expect Apple will make some inroads in the spatial computing space in general and Vision in particular.
- Lower-cost model: It was curious to see Apple introduce the product Vision Pro. In Apple’s lineup, the “Pro” moniker always tells a higher performing, but more expensive version in the product tier. It is expected that Apple will eventually unveil “The Vision” which is a lower-cost but capable product for mass-market appeal.
- Vision Pro 2: While the rumor mill has indicated that the Vision Pro update with only be around 2026, we do expect and hope that some updates will be announced in 2025, especially during WWDC 2025.
Right now, the issue with Vision Pro is the price which means there’s little incentive for developers to make any apps on it. Once Vision products get more and more user base, there might be more pull factors for developers to build VisionOS apps.
- Prediction: With the design renewed in Series 10, expect nothing much will change for Series 11. Apple might introduce Apple Watch Ultra 3 with longer battery life and even more features.
Despite what people think, Apple will not change the Apple Watch design for the next decade or so. The outlines of the shape is iconic and easily recognisable from a distance. Apple might change what’s inside that shape, but it will never color outside of the lines. Ditto for the Apple Watch Ultra. There’s a reason why companies like Rolex still selling designs that date from the 1950s. Because they works.
- No Design Change: Don’t expect design change anytime in the future. Apple might change the interior, but never the sheet metal.
- More Pro models: If Apple is following a watchmaker playbook, expect that will be more professional-centric watches or apps for pilots, doctors, and travelers.
- Prediction: As a growing segment, of course Apple is looking for areas of growth. So expect better programming, more options and possibly new services.
Apple services has grown from an afterthought to the 2nd biggest contributor to Apple revenue base. So it is expected that Apple will continue to push to grow this segment of Apple business with new features and offerings.
This is a grab bag of other segments that Apple tries to compete in. Some products, like the AirPods, makes billions of dollars for Apple.
AirPods
Last year, Apple introduced AirPods 4 and added USB-C to the AirPods Max. In some select markets, AirPods Pro 2 is on discount during the holiday shopping season. So most likely, Apple will introduce AirPods Pro 3 during the all-important September event.
Music & TV
Apple’s “hobby” project, the Apple TV bought a streaming set-up box to the masses way back in 2007. Today, almost every TV on the market
is a SmartTV which makes selling a streaming box difficult.
Apple has been trying to enlarge the piece of the gaming pie for years now. The current Apple TV 4K is quite powerful with the A15 Bionic, the same chip that runs the iPhone 13 Pro. One of Apple’s casual moves is trying to make Apple TV a console gaming platform.
Apple could move the needle by putting the powerful M4 chip in an Apple TV body and selling it for $199. With the Sony PlayStation 5 costing around $399 in early 2025, an M4 Apple TV could really be a threat. But as Apple always finds out, the problem isn’t the hardware, but the games that is running on the platform.
Displays
Apple’s move on the display market is unique among its peers. Unlike others where everyone will put the cheapest price on the display, Apple tends to put the best build quality, technology, and design in their display.
The results speak for themselves: one of the earliest 6K display on the market. One of the unique 5K displays on the market. However, competition has caught up to Apple with Dell offering a similar, albeit slightly lower build quality at a quarter of the price.
The $5,000 Pro Display XDR was introduced in 2019 and the Studio Display was introduced in 2022. With almost all their Macs supporting 8K displays and the new HDMI 2.2 standard coming out, it could be the right time for Apple to introduce new displays.