This weekend, the UK (if that’s the right word) celebrated the start of British Daylight Savings Time, while US Daylight Savings Time started a fortnight earlier. In both countries it means, at least in theory, that the long dark nights of winter are behind us and spring has arrived. And for tech enthusiasts interested in a particular ecosystem, that time of year means only one thing: an Apple event.
This year, however, we may have to do without and accept that the Cupertino winter will likely continue until the start of the Cupertino summer on June 5, when WWDC kicks off. All the evidence strongly suggests that Apple has decided not to engage in a spring event in 2023.
To get started, let’s take a look at the dates of the 10 most recent Apple spring events, ranked by lateness in the year:
- March 2 (2011)
- March 6 (2008)
- March 7 (2012)
- March 8 (2022)
- March 9 (2015)
- March 21 (2016)
- March 25 (2019)
- March 27 (2018)
- April 8 (2010)
- April 20 (2021)
As you can see, this week we pass the last March date, leaving only those unusual April gatherings (one was held way back to show off iOS 4 before it became a WWDC staple, and the other seemingly pushed back by the pandemic) as reasons for hope. If Apple held an event tomorrow, it would already be the third last on the list. (It won’t, of course, because it needs to send invites, which usually happens about a week in advance.) Once you add the invite time, we get closer to the date from 2010; beyond that, there’s just the very unusual outlier of 2021. Each passing day makes an Apple spring event quite obviously less likely, but the odds are already slim.
WWDC 2023 will be held the week of June 5, but will we get an Apple event before then?
Apple
And it’s not just the calendar that fuels pessimism. See, Apple has made an announcement this spring, when it launched the yellow iPhone 14 on March 7. It wasn’t an event, just a discreet press release, but it was just the kind of reveal that normally coincides with the spring bonanza. (The Alpine Green iPhone 13 Pro was unveiled at the Peek Performance event in March 2022, and the purple iPhone 12 at Spring Loaded in April 2021.) As I’ve discussed elsewhere, if Apple were to hold an event, it goes without saying that it wouldn’t have announced the yellow iPhone 14 that way at the time.
But the other thing worth noting about that list is the gaps. Apple’s spring events happen most years, but it’s hardly a shock if they don’t: In 2020, the company went through all of March and April without inviting anyone to a virtual or in-person meeting. It’s not a positive sign, indicating a lack of breakthrough products ready for launch, but it’s not a disaster either. The company apparently isn’t comfortable showing off the AR headset just yet, but that’s better than forcing it. (Members of the headset design team reportedly feel any launch this year will force it, but that’s a story for another day.)
So while the ever-diminishing likelihood of an Apple event in Spring 2023 is disappointing, there remain reasons for tech fans to be in high spirits. By all accounts, we can still look forward to the unveiling of the Reality Pro headset sometime in 2023, and the novelty of the category and importance of this product to Apple’s post-iPhone future will make the unveiling a must-watch. create event. Sure, it would have been nice if it happened before April 1, but it should be worth the wait.
