After each of Apple's events I end up recapping my predictions that I made for the event. This event is no exception. Let us look at how well I did today.

iPhone SE

I made two guesses for the iPhone SE. These were "New iPhone SE with 5G" and "New iPhone SE still has Touch ID". I did get both of these right. The iPhone SE now has an A15 and it supports 5G connectivity. so, I got these two correct.

iPad Air

There were two iPad Air-related predictions that I made, these are "New iPad Air with A15", and "New iPad Air with 5g Connectivity". I only got this half right. The new iPad Air has an M1 not an A15. However, the new iPad Air does have 5G connectivity, for cellular models. So I got one out of two.

Mac mini

I predicted that there would be a "New Mac mini with M1 Pro and M1 Pro Max". Nope, no new Mac mini. The Intel Mac mini is still on sale. So I did not get this one right at all.

There was a new Mac, the Mac Studio. The Mac Studio is in no way a replacement for the Mac mini, because it starts at $1999 for the M1 Max and $3999 for the M1 Ultra processor.

Classical Music app

I made a guess that Apple would "Announce release of revamped Primephonic app". This was was completely wrong. Apple did not mention this at all. Maybe it will be announced at another event soon.

Closing Thoughts

Out of the six predictions that I made, I only got 3 correct. So this is a 50% correct. This is not too bad given that they did not announce two of the things that I predicted. Be sure to check out my recap of the "Peek Performance" event for additional information.

Apple is holding their "There’s More in the Making" event this Tuesday. As with most every other Apple event, I will make my predictions for what we will see. Here is what I think Apple will announce.

iPads

This October event will be Apple's fourth event this year. At their March Education-based event in Chicago they announced the new 9.7-inch iPad. The 2017 iPad Pros were announced at Apple's Wide Developer Conference, or WWDC. WWDC 2018 passed without an iPad announcement as did the September iPhone event. Logically this means that the iPad Pros will be announced at this event, if there are to be new models this year at all. It is not likely that Apple would skip another 18 months, not given that Apple has positioned the iPad Pros to be pro machines and is the future computing device for most users.

Here is what I wrote for the September event:

My guess is that the iPad Pros are the only ones that will be updated, since the 9.7-inch iPad was updated in March. The new iPad Pros will have reduced bezel, with no Touch ID but instead will have Face ID. I think the screen sizes will remain the same, at 10.5 inches and 12.9-inches. The reduced bezels means the the physical size of the iPad devices will be smaller, which will allow easier handling. It is also possible that the new iPads will remain the same physical size, but the screens will be a bit larger. If this is the case, the current 12.9-inch iPad would end up being approximately 14.5 inches. It would be great to actually have an even larger iPad, but within the same physical form factor.

I think the new iPad Pros will not have a lightning connection, as all iOS devices have had since the release of the iPhone 5. Instead, it is likely to have a USB-C connection. This will provide couple of different functions. The first being The first is the ability to output the screen at a higher resolution than the native. Secondly, it could provide easier connectivity with being able to connect a USB-C enabled Mac to an iPad with a USB-C to USB-C cable, instead of USB-C to lightning.

I still stand by this prediction. However, instead of the 60% I gave it last month, I give it 100% chance of new iPads. I give the likelihood of them having Face ID at 100%, reduced bezels at 95%. I still give the likelihood of retaining same physical size, as well as retaining the same screen size each a 50% chance.

Updated Macs

Apple, generally, updates Macs on a somewhat regular basis. There are times when this is not possible due to delays from Intel or other suppliers.

Mac mini

There is one Mac that has not been updated in 1474 days and that would be the Mac mini. To give some perspective that's over 4 years ago. At the time of its the Mac mini came with OS X 10.10 Yosemite. There has been some speculation that Apple will re-position the Mac mini as a more professional computer.

The Mac mini was originally positioned as the entry level Mac and that was back in 2005 the the original Mac mini was released. In that intervening 13 years, most Mac users prefer laptops over desktops and as such it would make sense.

My guess is that the new Mac mini will only have SSD options and will not have an option for traditional hard drives. This may increase the price, but

I predict that the Mac mini will be updated with 95% certainty. I give the likelihood of a Pro model of the Mac mini at 50%. If Apple does not update the Mac mini in this event then it can be presumed that the Mac mini is officially dead and will never be updated again.

iMac

Apple has two different models of iMac, the iMac and the iMac Pro. The regular iMac has two screen sizes, 21.5-inch and 27-inch screen. The last time the regular iMac was updated was in June of 2017.

I predict the regular iMac will get an update, but it might be a slight update, including processor upgrades. If Apple has redesigned the internals of the iMac, then there will likely be no spinning hard drive option.

Similarly for the iMac Pro. It already does not have a traditional hard drive option, so that is not an issue. I do not think we will see an iMac Pro, only because the processors used within the iMac Pro are not updated as often as other processors. Therefore, I think we will see a new iMac Pro next year, probably around the time as the new Mac Pro is unveiled.

MacBook and MacBook Air

Apple's line of laptops is in need of updating. In particular, the MacBook and the 13-inch non-TouchBar MacBook Pro. The Touch Bar models of the MacBook Pros were updated in July and will not see updates, but the other models are in need of a refresh. I think we will see an updated 12-inch MacBook, with a lower price point, at $999. I think this because the MacBook Air is still at the $999 price point, and it is non-retina. Either the MacBook Air needs to be updated to be retina or the MacBook needs to have the price dropped to $999.

It is possible that the MacBook may retain the current price point and the 13-inch MacBook Pro will get the reduced price down to $999, but in all reality it is likely the MacBook that will see the price reduction. I give the likelihood of the Macbook being updated with a reduced price at 75%, and the 13-inch MacBook Pro seeing a price reduction to $999 at 25%.

Accessories

One of the areas where Apple makes some additional revenue is through the sale of accessories. One of the accessories that is specifically for the iPad Pro is the Apple Pencil. The Apple Pencil was introduced in 2015indicated that the with the release of the 1st generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

There have been some complaints about the fact that the Apple Pencil does not stay in once place without rolling away. Additionally, artists who have indicated that extended use of the Apple Pencil is not best for long term usage.

It would be nice to have a revamped Apple Pencil, possibly one that is a bit shorter, but also a thicker that fits better in the hand. If the Logitech Crayon that was released in March is any indication, it could be that a revised Apple Pencil will be the same general form factor, just a bit more elegant.

I give the probability of a new Apple Pencil at 50%. Particularly if the new iPad Pros do do not have a lightning port and only have USB-C.

Recap

I think the event will be focused on new iPad Pros as well as new Macs, including the Mac mini and iMac. Overall at least one of my predictions will be wrong. This is because you cannot have reduced bezels, keep the same physical size, and keep the same screen size.

Apple's Fall 2017 event was almost a week ago, so I thought it was time to go ahead and look at how well my predictions did. Here is what I predicted plus the results. Overall I got 12 out of 22, so 54.5% correct. I guess that's not too bad. If you add this and my WWDC predictions, I am at 51.35% for the year, not too bad. I think I was not too far off, particularly since these predictions were made before the leak of the Gold Master of iOS 11, which was the weekend before the announcement. Here are the predictions and the results.

Late last month, I had made two posts about my predictions, one for iPhone and iPad and another for macOS, tvOS, and watchOS. Let us see how I did. First, here are all of my predictions in one table.

Predictions

Let us go through all of these. Predictions one by one.

iOS Split View Changing

This absolutely did happen. There were a ton of changes with SplitView, This will be covered in detail in a bit.

macOS iMessage apps

Nope, this did not happen. I do not know if it did not happen because of the differences in capabilities between iOS' UIKit and macOS' AppKit, or for other reasons. There is always next year for this.

32-bit iOS Apps going away

This absolutely did occur. There is no longer 32-bit app support in iOS 11. This means that you will see a message indicating that the developer has to update their application in order for it to run.

macOS Server Software Update Service going away

This did not happen either. The Software Update Service is still available for administrators. However, as I mentioned, if it did not happen this go around, it would most likely occur next year.

watchOS Face being on all the time

Nope, this did not come to fruition. Even with all of the battery life available on the Apple Watch it still does not allow the face to be on all the time.

Fast split view app swapping on iOS

As mentioned above, there were a ton of changes in Split View. This is one of them. Is it now possible with iOS 11 to be able to switch applications quite easily. This includes, being able to have an application layer on top of one another as well as using Split View on both the left and right sides in portrait as well as landscape views. This will absolutely help productivity.

New watchOS Workout Types

My guess at this occurring was 70%. And it did in-fact happen. There is now a new workout type called "High Intensity Interval Training". This is one of the more popular forms of exercise, and it will be a benefit to be able to track the workouts a bit more accurately.

Third-party Apple Watch Faces

Unfortunately, this did not occur. There are a few new watch faces, Woody, Jessie, and Buzz from the Toy Story franchise, but that is all of the new watch faces.

iOS Split View App Groups

Just as with Fast Split View switching, App groups have also come to the iPad in iOS 11. There is absolutely no configuration needed for setting an app group, simply put the apps you want to use together side by side, and they will be considered an app group. You can change the groups at any point.

Sticker Pack creation from iPad Pro

With all of the new features for the iPad, the ability to create stickers directly on the iPad did not happen. I do not know if this is because it does not fit into the overall direction of the iPad, but it would be nice to have.

Notifications about health anomalies

The ability to get notifications about health anomalies did not occur either. The likelihood given was low, and it did not happen.

iOS Drag and drop Data Transfer

The Drag and Drop Data Transfer feature was added to iOS 11. You are able to drag and drop images and text without any app updates. You can also drag and drop other types of data, provided the developers add support.

Synchronize Health Data

While it was not announced on stage, there is now synchronization of health data across all of your iOS apps. This is available in the iCloud settings. This will definitely a benefit to all users who want to make sure that their health data is up to date on all of their devices.

iTunes Refresh

An iTunes Refresh was a very long short. I honestly did not expect this to happen, and it did not. Maybe sometime soon?

4K Movies and TV in iTunes

I did not honestly expect that to happen at this event. While we did get Amazon Prime Video coming in the fall, 4K content has not arrived. It may come in the future, possibly with a new Apple TV.

Final Thoughts

Those are all of my predictions. I only got 7 out of 15 correct, that is a mere 46.6%, not quite half, but it is still a decent percentage. Maybe I can get more correct next year.