iOS and iPadOS 17, macOS 14, watchOS 10new MacBooks and its first mixed reality viewer with related operating system, xrOS, are the novelties expected by Apple at WWDC 2023, its world conference dedicated to developers to be held from 5 to 9 June at Apple Park in Cupertino.
The viewer will certainly be the protagonist of the opening keynote but the rest will not be outdone. There will likely be new MacBooks. According to rumors, Apple is currently in the works on a 15-inch MacBook Air, an updated 13-inch MacBook Air, an entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro, a Updated 24-inch iMac, the first Mac Pro with Apple Silicon chips and an updated high-end MacBook Pro. There would also be on the way Mac Studio updatesbut their timing is less clear.
All should arrive by the end of the year or, at the latest, by the beginning of next. Someone will be announced on the stage of the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, probably the Air from 15, for others we will still have to wait. With these new MacBooks, Apple has the task of trying to revive its Mac sector which has just closed a decidedly negative quarter with a drop in sales that exceeded 40% year on year.
As for the processors, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, it is unlikely that an M3 processor will be announced in June. In fact, in some test registers, unpublished MacBooks with eight-core CPUs have begun to appear in recent weeks, four of which are high-performance, four high-efficiency, a 10-core graphics processor and 8GB of memory.
WWDC has usually seen the arrival of new “major releases” of Apple’s operating systems. There is great expectation for both the iPhone and the iPad, but watchOS should be the one that will introduce most of the new features. Indeed, according to Gurman, the Apple Watch operating system will undergo a major revamp. At the moment, however, there is not much information. Gurman spoke of a “major” update with “significant improvements,” including an “updated interface.” For now there are no other details.
As for iOS and iPadOS, both will be focused mainly on performance and stability even if there will be no shortage of new features. Rumors speak of “major changes” to the Control Center, which will be renewed and made more customizable, active widgets, search improvements, more features for the Dynamic Island and major CarPlay and Accessibility updates, with replaceable lock screen and homescreen elements and larger app icons.
Apple launched the completely refreshed sixth-generation iPad mini in September 2021. The announcement of a seventh generation with minimal changesprobably related to the processor and some high technical detail.
Up to now there have been no concrete rumors in this sense but it is likely that it will arrive by the end of the year. According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple could begin mass shipments of a seventh-generation iPad in late 2023 or at the latest in the first half of 2024.
