On Tuesday, Apple sent out invitations to a special press event next month. Taglined ‘Let Loose,’ the event takes place on May 7 and begins at 7am PT. It seems to be an online-only event, with recipients invited to tune in at apple.com rather than attending in person.
This is a major surprise. The company frequently holds events in the spring, either in March or in April, and always holds an event (WWDC) in June. But there hasn’t been an Apple event in May this century. The timing is also strange, as Apple typically holds its events at 10am PT, three hours later than this event.
The most likely explanation is that Apple was planning to have a spring event this year (they’re pretty common; they happened in 2021 and 2022) and simply couldn’t get the products ready in time. It’s been widely reported that the new iPads were supposed to come out in March/April but hit production delays.
Sure enough, the promotional artwork accompanying the invitation clearly shows a hand holding an Apple Pencil, an accessory for the iPad, and (currently) no other Apple product. You can bet we’re about to get new iPads and probably a 3rd-gen Apple Pencil (or 4th depending on who’s counting) with a squeeze gesture to go with it.
The fact that Apple is bothering to hold a press event, however, remains slightly surprising. The company rolled out new MacBooks in March, but these were announced via press release. Most pundits expected Apple to do likewise with the new iPads for 2024 since the next generation of iPads isn’t all that exciting. But for them to deserve an event–and for Apple to not want to hold them back for one more month and announce them at WWDC–suggests one of two things. That the iPads feature major new features and/or design changes that deserve lots of stage time. Or that Apple has something else up its sleeve and can’t wait any longer.
Either way, this looks like being a fun event. Keep up with the latest news and rumors with our guides to the new iPad, new iPad Air, new iPad Pro, and new iPad mini.