A new year, a new beginning. As we wind down 2024, take a breather and prep ourselves for 2025 where big, new challenges await for all of us. On the surface level, Apple might play the same song year in and year out, but there are a lot of subtle changes that will change the ship’s direction. Although we would love to read about drama and dramatic changes, boring leadership is good leadership. Let’s find out what is in store for Apple in 2025.
Apple Events
Apple is a large company and Tim Cook’s leadership style is pretty much button-down. So you can predict which product will go at what time of the year. These offerings might look boring, but having a known schedule makes it easier to plan for upgrades. However, occasionally, Apple does pepper the schedule with some surprises. In 2024, the most pleasant surprise was the $599 M4 Mac Mini with 16GB of memory, which cements as the most value-for-money computing in the industry.
| Season | Month> | Expected | Actual Event Date | What Actually Happened |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring | January / March | MacBook Air with M4, Vision Pro updates? | ||
| Summer | May / June | iPad updates, WWDC 2025, Mac Studio with M4 Max / M4 Ultra, Mac Pro with M4 Ultra / M4 Extreme, new Displays? | ||
| Fall | September | iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, Apple Watch, Apple Watch Ultra, AirPods Pro | ||
| Winter | October | Macs with M5, Other Apple Updates? |
Product Update
Apple announced new announcements every quarter while remaining low-key through the rest of the year.
Q1: Leftovers Update
After the holidays, a new year and a new determination to accomplish things. At this point, Apple usually updates things that are left out during the holiday season. We expect MacBook Air, Apple’s most popular laptop to be updated to the new M4 chip. There’s also a possibility that the iPads are getting new updates. We might see the first M5 chip on the iPad Pro. The new M5 might run on the 3rd generation 3nm manufacturing or first generation 2nm, depending on how well TSMC is doing.
Q2: WWDC and Pro Products
Apple presents WWDC in June every year and there is no reason for Apple not to do it again this year. Although the main focus of the event will be software that will see the light in September or October, Apple does sometimes launch new hardware in WWDC. We expect Apple will update the Mac Studio and Mac Pro which is still running the M2 generation of Apple Silicon. With the performance crown currently on a MacBook Pro that is running a M4 Max, Apple is quite motivated to push the benchmark up with a higher-performing desktop chip like the M4 Ultra or even M4 Extreme.
Q3: iPhone, actually
Like clockwork, Apple’s best-selling product in history, the iPhone will get an update in September. Some might say the age of smartphones is over, but I think it is still here. No, there will not be explosive growth year-over-year or big design changes, but smartphone sales, especially iPhones, are not slowing down.
Apple’s formula for the iPhone is simple: new top-of-the-line features on the Pro models and trickle-down features on the base model. There will also be a headline feature for each generation. I think Apple has a few innovations that it plans to bring, but decided to drip the features out over a few years instead of one big push. 2024 was the Camera Control button. The year before is the USB-C port. The year before that was the 48MP camera and Dynamic Island. You get the point.
For iPhone 17, it should be Apple’s first 2nm chip, the A18 Pro (and possibly A18 for the base iPhone) which makes the fastest and most powerful mobile chip in the industry. There might be an Air model which means the lightest and thinnest iPhone ever.
Q4: Macs and Closing Arguments
The fourth quarter of 2025 is when Apple will give updates on other items in their lineup to prepare for the holiday shopping season. This is where Apple would introduce updated Macs. There are the bread-and-butter Macs like the MacBook Pro, the iMac, or maybe the Mac Mini.
Conclusion
Apple, predictably will update their current lineup with more useful features. I don’t expect a new product line to appear as Apple has yet to make major inroads with the Vision Pro. The things that Apple bought in may be small, but this is Apple. It’s a big ship. Things take time to turn around, but when it does, it leaves a huge wake.
- 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.
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.
- 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.
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.