Tim Cook teases “big week” for Apple 📆

Tim Cook has teased a string of announcements due to begin on Monday, and the rumour mill is already kicking up in to overdrive. Front and centre looks to be the long rumoured low cost MacBook, potentially one of Apple’s boldest strategic moves in years. At the same time, the first hints of Apple’s plans for macOS 27 have emerged. There’s also growing noise around a genuinely next generation MacBook Pro.

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Next weeks big tease

Last week I covered all of the rumoured product updates that might make an appearance in March. And Apple CEO Tim Cook has since confirmed a week of special announcements with a teaser video shared on social media.

The tease as shown below, depicts what appears to be an aluminium blotch being shaped into the iconic Apple logo. A logo that happens to be sitting on the lid of what looks likely to be the lid of a MacBook. Could this be the rumoured colourful, low cost MacBook? I think it seems likely. The legendary Basic Apple Guy theorises that the anodised logo seems to be darker than the typical shiny, glossy logo we see on other MacBooks.

If the rumour proves to be true, this will be a huge strategic move for Apple. While Apple does have a relatively low cost Mac option already with the Mac mini at £599/$599, that machine is a desktop computer sold without a display, keyboard or mouse. What Apple hasn’t offered in a really long time, is a laptop priced to compete at the mid range.

Some suggest that this new MacBook will be priced similarly to the Mac mini. At that price point Apple would capture a slice of the market who aspire to buy a MacBook but are currently priced out. Many students would like to own a MacBook for instance but the MacBook Air, currently Apple’s cheapest laptop, is still out of reach for many. At £999/$999 before education discounts, the MacBook Air isn’t cheap.

I also think a MacBook priced at the mid range could steal some marketshare from Google’s Chromebooks which in many cases, are very low cost. Chromebooks tend to appeal to enterprise customers with tight budgets such as educational institutions or customer service businesses with high volume deployments. Apple likely hopes to take a bite out of the upper low end by convincing businesses to spend a little more for what it believes to be a vastly superior product.

We’ll have to wait and see what Apple has in store. But if this new MacBook is priced correctly and offers the right mix of features, it could be a real hit. It’s believed to contain an iPhone chip to achieve this. The chips in the iPhone are fast and more than capable of handling every day computing needs. Combine that with a bright, colourful design and Apple could have a huge hit on its hands.

macOS 27

In June Apple will unveil its next generation operating systems as WWDC. One of which will be macOS 27. Here’s what has been rumoured so far:

• Siri gets its big upgrade – We already know that Apple is building a more powerful Siri. But it might go further than that with full chatbot style conversations, bringing it closer to services like ChatGPT and Gemini. Some of the personalised Siri features previewed previously will finally land with this release.  
• Deeper Apple Intelligence features – Google’s Gemini models will power expanded AI centric functionality beyond Siri itself, though the exact capabilities are still unclear.  
• Touch focused UI support – macOS 27 may include interface changes optimised for touch, tied to rumoured touchscreen Mac hardware expected later this year (more on that below)  
• Quality and stability improvements – Much like Mac OS X Snow Leopard , this release appears focused on performance and polish as much as new features. That will be welcome to many who have lamented various bugs and UI quirks in macOS 26 Tahoe  
• Apple silicon only – macOS 27 is expected to drop support for Intel -based Macs entirely, making it an Apple silicon exclusive release. Supporting that idea are warnings seen in macOS 26.4 that Rosetta 2 support is coming to an end.  
• Legacy tech dropped – Support for AirPort Time Capsule and networking via the old Apple Filing Protocol will be removed, pushing users to more modern file sharing options.

Perhaps the one surprise here is the work on UI optimisations for touch. Apple has long railed against touchscreens on MacBooks, citing usability and ergonomic concerns. But if these rumours hold out, that could be about to change. Perhaps Apple has changed its mind or found ways to address these concerns. Time will tell.

Touch support and Siri aside, I think we all expect macOS 27 along with iOS and iPadOS 27 to be focused on bug fixes and refinement. Last year was a big release with a total overhaul to bring a unified user interface across devices. But sweeping changes tend to introduce more bugs, performance snags as well as UI and usability quirks. Apple looks set to address this and that would be a welcome update I think for most users. I’m sure we’ll still see some new features but they’ll be more measured and focused (hopefully).

Next Generation MacBook Pro

No not the upcoming M5 Pro and Max version. But a truly next generation MacBook Pro with an all new design, a move to OLED displays and for the first time on a Mac, a touch screen. That’s what the rumours point to.

The last true redesign of the MacBook Pro launched at the end of 2021 with the M1 Pro and M1 Max models. That chassis, still with us today, was a big shift. It got thicker and a touch heavier than the Intel era machines. But those trade offs bought us a vastly superior product. MagSafe came back. Ports returned. Performance jumped to a different league thanks to Apple silicon. The display tech was overhauled with ProMotion and miniLED. Apple abandoned chasing thinness at all costs and started building no nonsense pro machines again.

We’re coming up to five years since the last major MacBook Pro redesign, which is typically right in Apple’s refresh window. In 2008 we got the first unibody MacBook Pro. In 2012 Apple delivered a dramatically thinner chassis with the first Retina display on a Mac. Then in 2016 came the Touch Bar era, a bold (thought often maligned) rethink of input and I/O . If that pattern holds, we’re right on schedule for another substantial redesign rather than just a chip bump and a new colour

While this will be a significant redesign, I don’t think Apple will abandon its sensibilities by returning to the missteps of the Touch Bar era. I’m sure the machine will be a little slimmer and lighter. But I don’t think they’ll abandon ports again or compromise on performance. If anything Apple silicon has gotten considerably more powerful and crucially, more power efficient since 2021. And if correct, Apple will be moving superior OLED display technology, complete with FaceID and a Dynamic Island. Welcome updates.

The big unanswered question is touch. Do Mac users actually want it? And even if they do, does it make ergonomic sense on a clamshell laptop?

Personally, I’ve never felt the urge to lean forward and start tapping my Mac’s display, leaving fingerprints all over it. The iPad Pro already solves that problem far more elegantly. Pair it with the Magic Keyboard and the screen quite literally floats above the keys, positioned for touch in a way that feels intentional rather than bolted on.

For a MacBook Pro, touch only really makes sense if the hardware adapts to it. A detachable display would at least justify the interaction model. But that feels unlikely. Microsoft explored that hybrid route years ago, and the broader market never truly embraced it.

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