Wondering what that bang was, that noise you just heard? It was Apple firing the starting gun for the race that will end, in a matter of days, it seems, with the release of the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra second generation. And the timing of today’s announcement took many by surprise.
The next Apple special event will be on Tuesday, September 12 at 10 a.m. Pacific at the Steve Jobs Theater in Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino.
So you know, I’ve written what I hope is a comprehensive guide to exactly what will happen when, so you don’t miss a thing. I’m updating it as each element is confirmed (and we’ll see how much I got right in due course). Click the link above or here.
The date and time are exactly what had been predicted by many, but what hadn’t been expected was how soon today’s announcement would come. Most pundits had banked on Apple making the announcement on Thursday, August 31 or later.
At the risk of sounding immodest, I had guessed today would be the day. However, although I had a funny feeling it would be as soon as today, I slightly hedged my bets by predicting that it would be either today or tomorrow, August 30.
My logic was that because the event was going to be a week later than it had been last year, that Apple would at least want to share information as soon as possible, to start building momentum.
So, what happened today was that at around 9 a.m. Pacific, Apple sent out invitations to media and special guests, requesting their presence on September 12.
Apple is highly regular in its scheduling, so today’s announcement puts a very clear calendar in place. Essentially, the iPhone pretty much always goes on sale on a Friday, in the week following the keynote. Now that we know the date for that, we can be pretty sure the next iPhones and Watches will see pre-orders open on Friday, September 15 and phones and watches appearing in Apple Stores and elsewhere on Friday, September 22.
As is de rigueur with these things, there’s no direct mention of what’s being announced. Of course not, that would spoil the surprise. But the invitation may offer clues.
Note the emphasis on understated colors, dominated by blue and gray. These match the predicted colors for the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
I have a fancy the swirly shapes may indicate there’ll be a lot more talk about Vision Pro as well.
The main joy of today is that Apple has finally put us out of our collective misery of wondering when, finally, we would be able to start our countdown. Now, we know.
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