Is Apple going affordable? What new devices are coming – and how much change might you have?

Apple has announced an event for March 4, which might be where metaphorical daylight reaches some of the many products that have been rumored over the last few months and even years.

Apple, as expected, has not shared any details in advance, simply issuing an invite with a stylized version of the Apple logo – the only suggestion that things are slightly out of the ordinary is that this "special Apple experience" is going to be in New York rather than the company's Cupertino home.

What are we expecting from Apple on March 4

• MacBook – but cheaper The talk of the town is a MacBook with a phone-like (A18) processor coming in at about $599.
• iPhone 17e Yes, that time in Apple's product cycle for a cheaper flagship-ish phone.
• M5 MacBook Air Update to the faster new CPU, but the same old outsides, for the popular Air.
• iPad Air 8 M4 processor marking a small internal update.
• MacBook Pro M5 Max & Ultra The premium chips are still awaited for the top of the line MacBooks too (only the bottom MacBook Pro has an M5 thus far).
• iPad 12 Internal update also expected for the cheapest iPad.

Apple has long had a cheaper iPhone, so it is easy enough to remember the iPhone 16e from last year, for example. We don't expect to see any changes in the price, which starts at $599. The insides might get the upgrade to the A19 chipset and Apple's C1X and N1 wireless chips – which both improve battery life and potentially save Apple from needing to buy chips externally.

Wireless charging is expected to be upgraded to MagSafe with speeds of up to 25W.

An Apple laptop at the same $599 is potentially achieved using a A18 Pro chipset, and a 12.9-inch display, though recent developments in Apple Intelligence suggests that a minimum of 16GB RAM might be a starting point. I have to say that seems a little higher than the memory point that Apple aficionados might be used to for entry-level machines, though, and rumours can drift into wish-listing, so we shall see!

Potentially, though, this level of power should be enough for basic photography tasks. Oh, and would you really want an iPad if you could have a MacBook for less?

In terms of devices that we know and recognize on the outside, the upper MacBook Pros (Max & Ultra chips) are still awaiting the M5 treatment, and the assorted iPads are also due a minor chip refresh. None of these are 'new products' though. The other items in the rumor mill – so the ones that attract the attention (especially as Apple has picked a different venue), must be either the 'pendant' – something like an AI Star Trek communicator – or Apple's other rumored and much expected release, some kind of affordable glasses.

Affordable, that is, in comparison to Apple's $3,499/£3,199 Vision Pro.

The Rayban Meta has been spectacularly successful, with actual sales clocking up over 7 million unit sales in 2025 (which will represent around half the $1.1 billion per quarter the entire division pulls in), and CNBC reporting production being pushed to 20 million.

Inevitably, there are plenty of rumors of greater or lesser credibility suggesting that Apple are working on its own competing product which, like the Meta RayBan, will have a camera in the frames to capture video.

The project is reportedly codenamed internally 'N50', but that doesn't mean they are close enough to completion that we'll see them this March. I've also heard 2027 and 2028 as public release timing, so it's fair to say it's not exactly nailed down (though it is likely that an updated version of Siri will need to at least be involved, which would be iOS 27, this year's edition, which also isn't out yet).

And on the subject of updating Siri, the other thing, perhaps a little more fanciful, is the idea of a device you speak to and make requests of Siri like any other AI chatbot. This would be worn around the neck like a pendant, or pinned to clothing like Captain Picard's badge.

It, too, might have a camera so it can perceive its environment, to help it answer questions.

Former Apple chief designer Jony Ive has also been rumored to be working on a device like this for an AI startup, IO, now acquired by OpenAI (of ChatGPT fame).

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