The 2023 WWDC keynote is just a few days away, so before any more last-minute leaks make it out, I wanted to put my line in the sand for what I expect to see Monday.
On this week’s Connected, I made the following picks:
- Apple will announce a 15-inch MacBook Air.
- The phrase “One more thing” will be used before The Headset is announced.
- The announced price of The Headset will be less than $2,500.
That last one generated quite a bit of conversation on the show. The rumors have been pretty consistent that this thing is going to be in the neighborhood of $3,000, and it doesn’t seem like there’s any counter-reporting planted by Apple to adjust expectations. So either The Headset is going to be that expensive, or Apple is going to surprise us, and likes the bar set where it currently is.
This was my “risky pick,” so I admit I’m out on a limb here, but even at $2,500, it is going to be pricey. I can see Apple preferring to rip the bandage off now, so by the time it goes on sale people have had time to digest (and prepare for) the price. If they announce it now, it’ll cloud the coverage of the device, but at least that cloud will have time to clear before pre-orders open.
Here are the rest of my picks on the show:
- The keynote video runs over 2 hours.
- The 15-inch MacBook Air will be powered by an M3.
- Apple reframes an existing feature as being powered by “AI.”
- Jeff Williams has a major role in introducing the headset.
- iPadOS 17 gains Lock Screen customization.
- We see a Mac Pro preview.
- The next version of macOS is not called Skyline, as Viticci has predicted.
I think all of these are pretty straight forward, and I feel pretty good about most of them.
No matter who wins on Connected next week, WWDC is going to be jam-packed and should be one for the books. I’ll be in Cupertino Tuesday-Thursday and can’t wait to talk about all of this with folks.