Apple is reportedly planning two rounds of product launches this October. A home lineup is expected on October 13, and more new products are lined up for the final week of the month.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says Apple will unveil a smart home hub, a new HomePod mini and a new Apple TV 4K on Tuesday, October 13. His latest Power On newsletter adds that Apple is planning to hold an event. Now multiple sources familiar with the matter have told MacRumors that Apple plans to unveil more new products in the last week of October. Apple has not announced either round.
Apple’s October 13 Lineup Is Built Around the Home
The three home products are expected to arrive together. Our October product roundup has the full list of rumored products, and the details for these three look like this:
- Smart home hub: a squarish display of about 7 inches for controlling smart home products, playing music and making video calls.
- HomePod mini: a faster chip and new colors.
- Apple TV 4K: an A17 or newer chip with Apple Intelligence support, plus Apple’s N1 wireless networking chip.
The hub is the biggest change in the group. It would be Apple’s second new product category in months.
Macs Are the Most Likely Products for the Last Week of October
The sources did not say which products Apple plans to announce. The most likely candidates are all Macs, starting with the OLED MacBook Pro that is often called the MacBook Ultra. It is expected to have a thinner and lighter design, and it is reportedly much lighter than today’s models.
A base 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M6 chip is also possible, as covered in our M6 MacBook Pro guide. So is an iMac with an M6 chip, which is expected this year in new colors.
Apple has already announced a high-end Mac Studio configuration with the M5 Ultra chip and 512GB of RAM for late October, so that one is confirmed. An OLED iPad mini is the other product due this month. It is rumored to get an A20 Pro chip, a landscape front camera and a redesigned speaker system, and it is unclear whether Apple will announce it on October 13, in the last week of October or at another point in the month.
The iPhone Duo Launch Falls Between the Two Rounds
Apple’s first foldable iPhone sits in the middle of the run. The iPhone Duo Get Ready program starts on October 12, four days before pre-orders open. The month currently looks like this:
- October 12: iPhone Duo Get Ready begins
- October 13: smart home hub, HomePod mini and Apple TV 4K (expected)
- October 16: iPhone Duo pre-orders open
- October 23: iPhone Duo launches
- Final week of October: new Macs (likely) and the M5 Ultra Mac Studio with 512GB of RAM
