My guesses for September 9th. Sorted by device, listed from most likely, to wildest...
iPhones
- Hardware refreshes with 6s and 6s Plus. Same screen sizes.
- New processors (A9, M9)
- Upgraded cameras. Better sensor, bump to 12MP. 4k video is a maybe in my book (tough on space and battery life, but might pair nicely with an upgraded TV?). Also, might get optical stabilization on the 6s as well as the 6s Plus. Software-based front-facing flash is 50/50. Don’t expect to see the results of the Sony knowledge grab yet- that will likely wait for the 7.
- Force Touch screens. The biggest questions here will be around how the software integrates it. Open API for developers? Or system-owned actions? I favor the latter, for the record, as a small number of consistent gestures would be best for UI and adoption. My picks would be A) “Clear All” on the Notifications screen, B) Activate Camera from the Lock Screen [much faster than the swipe up and no more mis-gestured control center] C) App Switching from anywhere inside the OS.
- 1, maybe 2 new colors (Pink seems to be most likely, but whatever happened to that Rose Gold rumor?). Also- I REALLY want the “space grey” to be the same as the Sport Watch color.
- OLED screens. Don’t ask me why, but put this on the way out in left-field column.
TV
- New Hardware. Upgraded to at least the A7 (but could be A8 or A9) Larger, but similar form factor. 802.11AC routing. Plastic or aluminum is a 50/50 guess.
- New remote. Includes touch screen, microphone, and multi-axis sensors.
- New software. Includes SDK for developers and APIs for HomeKit.
- Unified search with Siri. Building on the same iOS API for “deep linking” I think this is a “must-do” feature for a TV platform today.
- Always-on listening. For HomeKit integration especially, the ability to say “Hey Siri” anytime in my house and activate a response. The challenge here is to not have multiple devices waking up at once (or if they do, make sure handoff syncs them so I get only 1 response).
- Multiple colors. Lots of people thinking this will be a given in the new scheme of things (Space Grey, Gold, Silver) but I doubt it. I’m putting this in the “eh maybe” end because I think most likely you’ll get any color you want, as long as it’s black.
Miscellaneous
- New Watch Bands. These have proven wildly successful and super profitable. And we know there are lots of colors floating around that haven’t been given wide-release yet. Project RED is likely and a bunch more. Just in-time for the holidays and to tide us all over until the next big hardware release. (which I think could take a while...)
- AirPort Refresh. Makes sense to me along side a new TV and might even serve as an additional microphone for house-wide “Hey Siri” integration.
And finally, my “not gonna happen” list...
- Apple Retail Refresh. Not before the holidays. I think they'll wait for next spring and then have the summer for remodels.
- iPad or iMac. I’m holding out for a separate event all about bigger devices in October. New iPads, maybe the rumored “iPad Pro” and my big wish-list item; a 4k Retina iMac at 21”.
- New Watch. I don’t think Apple is going to go for an annual refresh here. Call it lessons learned from iPad, but I don’t think they want to be on an annual cycle in this new category. Watch bands- yes. New Watch- not for a while...
- Cars. Nope. Not yet. Maybe in a couple years...
One more thing...
- My wildest, most crazy prediction yet- an Apple made Pay terminal. Yes, they got big buy-in from Square at WWDC. But if Apple really wants Pay to take off, they HAVE to get more retailers using it. Banks=good. Retailers= Critical. What if Apple made a fantastic and easy to use Pay reader that could quickly hook up with any existing register software? No change in payments processor, no new POS terminals. Just plug and play? It’s crazy, but I’d love to see it happen.
Okay, there you go. I’m allowed to keep my tech blogger card for 6 more months now. Let’s see what happens in just one more week!
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