Apple announces ‘Peek Performance’ Event on 8 March

After months of whispers about a possible early March Apple event, the company has finally confirmed its plans.

As predicted by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple’s event is set to take place next week, on 8 March 2022 at 10am PST, which translates to 1pm EST and 6pm GMT for those in the UK, and as usual, it’ll be available to stream via the Apple Event website on PC, Mac, Android and iOS.

If you’ve got an Apple device, it’ll also be available to stream via the Apple TV app, but the experience is fundamentally the same no matter how you watch. We cover how to watch the Apple Event in more detail separately if you’re interested in tuning in. 

The question is, what is to be announced? As usual, Apple’s event tagline – Peek Performance for the March event – doesn’t give much away, but it does hint at at new powerful products, with a multicolour Apple logo (the six colours of the original Apple logo, to be precise) that could hint at colour options for upcoming products.

Apple does like to tease announcements in its invitations, so let us know on Twitter if you spot anything interesting.  

Rumours, on the other hand, can give us a good idea of what Apple plans to reveal.

The headline launch is supposedly the third-gen iPhone SE, the latest budget-friendly iPhone. While there were rumours that the smartphone could adopt an iPhone X-like design, more recent rumblings suggest we should expect a similar chassis to the 2020 variant.

That’s not to say there’s nothing new though; the new iPhone SE will likely get the same A15 Bionic chipset as the iPhone 13 range, as it did with the iPhone 11’s A13 Bionic back at release in 2020. Another big new feature is said to be 5G connectivity, bringing the latest connectivity to the budget end of Apple’s smartphone offering.

The fifth-gen iPad Air is also rumoured to make an appearance at the event next week, with key upgrades to bring it in line with the rest of the iPad collection. Like the iPhone SE, there isn’t a big redesign in store – it got that with the release of the iPad Air 4 – but it’s rumoured to introduce features including 5G connectivity and an ultra-wide Centre Stage front-facing camera.

Whispers suggest we could also see the introduction of a new top-end Mac Mini with a slightly updated design. The new Mac Mini is rumoured to be significantly slimmer than its predecessor, and it could also sport a new plexiglass-like top too.

Of course, the headline will no doubt be the internals on offer, with current rumblings suggesting the new Mac Mini will match the M1 Pro and M1 Max available in the 14- and 16in MacBook Pro released at the back end of 2021.

Those expecting a new iPad Pro collection might be disappointed though; despite Apple favouring a Spring launch for its iPad Pro range over the past few years, current rumours suggest that this year’s model isn’t set for launch until the end of the year.

Whatever Apple has planned for its event, we don’t have much longer to find out.