Apple’s online store is now down as the company is busy “making updates” and there are “news in development” in the pipeline, a pretty sure sign that given that WWDC 2022 is taking place later today, there will be at least a new piece of hardware revealed – perhaps a shiny new MacBook Air or Mac Pro 2022.
If new hardware comes in, it’s standard Apple practice to tear down the store to reorganize things and put the new models in place (and, in fact, remove anything that’s been dropped from their lineup).
If you’re looking for standards, Apple only shut down the Apple Store during WWDC when there’s new hardware.
The Apple Store didn’t go down during WWDC 18, WWDC 19, WWDC 20 or WWDC 21 – all the years we didn’t get hardware. #WWDC22, the store is down. We are getting hardware.June 6, 2022
As the entire store is now inaccessible, of course, what we don’t know is what new product(s) Apple may have waiting to be revealed later today, when the conference starts.
Historically, WWDC has been less geared towards releasing hardware (although it is famously provoked the Mac Pro recycle bin in 2013), and firmly focused on the software side of the equation – which will no doubt still be the case today, but the store dropping is the strongest hint that we’ll see at least something in the way of a new Mac being revealed.
If you want to watch Apple’s keynote live stream later, by the way, we have a full guide on how to do so – the proceedings start at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm UK time.
Analysis: Does the Pro-variety Mac attack seem more likely?
We’ve heard a lot of possibilities about what could be shown in terms of new hardware at WWDC 2022, and that includes a potential new MacBook Air, which has been one of the strongest rumors – and is highly anticipated right now – or even a powered Mac mini. by M2. As mentioned, there can be more than one device.
Perhaps the most likely candidate to appear later today, however, is an all-new Mac Pro. This is a developer conference, after all, so a Pro model of some sort seems more likely to be revealed than consumer-line devices, perhaps – plus Apple’s vice president of hardware engineering John Ternus had already teased that a revelation could be at hand. hand for a refreshed Mac Pro (this was in March).
This is all just speculation, of course, but it looks like we’ll see something new on the Mac front later on – interesting stuff…
