Apple is calling its April event ‘Spring loaded’ — here’s what that could mean

This week, Apple officially announced that it will be holding a virtual event on Tuesday, April 20 that is set to kick off at 10:00 AM PDT. The official invite, which went out to people through email earlier today, revealed that the name of the event will be ‘Spring loaded.’

So, what does ‘Spring loaded’ mean for the Apple Event? Everyone always tries to pick apart an Apple invite in order to glean some sort of secret out of the art, the text, and anything else they can get their hands on. But it’s usually quite rare to find out that the invite pointed to a particular product or feature that is revealed at the event itself.

Despite that history, we’re going to ignore all of that and just go for it anyway because hey, that’s part of the fun leading up to an Apple Event!

Read the tea leaves (and the calendar event)

The obvious conclusion that someone could make from the Apple Event invite is that:

1. It is spring.
2. The event will be ‘loaded’ with announcements.

While the rumors have so far pointed to only a couple of products being revealed at the April event, we could all be surprised and find out that Apple has a lot more up its sleeve for this event than we thought.

I only allow myself to go down this rabbit hole because, when you add the event to your calendar through the Apple Events website, it takes up two hours. This is notable because the company has been releasing prerecorded events for the last few outings and, if you’ve seen any of them, you know they go FAST.

Tim Cook, Craig Federighi, and whoever else is presenting just fly through product announcements. This has inevitably made these recent events much shorter than they have always been when they were live.

If Apple is telling us to set aside two hours for the April event, AND it’s still prerecorded, they might have a lot more to talk about than a couple of products.

What could those products be?

As reported earlier in the week, the most obvious option for the April event is an updated iPad Pro with mini-LED display. That product has been rumored for a spring release for months now, and a recent report from Bloomberg continues that trend.

For those who also want to play in theories, the art of the Apple Event invite also looks like it was drawn with an Apple Pencil, a telltale sign that new iPads could be on the way.

The refreshed iPad Pro, at least in 12.9-inch guise, is expected to ship with a new Mini-LED screen and it’s that part in particular that could cause stock issues for those looking to bag a new tablet.

That’s according to a new Bloomberg report which notes that the tech is proving difficult to produce, with poor manufacturing yields set to cause a shortfall in overall production numbers.

The Cupertino, California-based tech giant plans to showcase a new MiniLED display technology in the 12.9-inch iPad Pro set to be announced as early as the second half of April. But the firm’s overseas suppliers are dealing with poor manufacturing yields, the people who asked not to be named discussing sensitive matters said. At least one of the MiniLED makers has had to recently pause production as a result, one person added.

If you need an iPad now and don’t need the potentially upcoming refresh to the iPad Pros, check out our list of the Best iPad of 2021.

The other product that is heavily expected at the April event is Apple’s long-rumored AirTags. The Tile competitor has been expected from the company for a while now and has reportedly been ready for months. With Apple just recently opening up its Find My app to third-party products, now would be an optimal time for the company to bring AirTags to the world.

There are always some dark horses out there as well. Apple’s VR headset has also seen leaks popping up recently, but many believe that device could see more of a focus or early look at WWDC in June. A new Apple TV is also up for grabs, but the company also seems to be focusing on potentially reenvisioning that product entirely with a whole new form factor that combines the Apple TV with a HomePod and Facetime camera.

The new MacBook Pros and iMacs are also anticipated, but those could also be reserved for WWDC or a fall event to talk about the company’s latest Apple silicon processors. The colors of the logo on the invite do look a lot like the rumored colors of the new iMacs though! Even new AirPods, which are anticipated at some point this year, could pop into the event.

Outside of iPad Pro and AirTags, it’s really a grab bag of everyone’s pipe dreams at this point.

A few days to go

Regardless of what gets announced at the April Apple Event next week, it’s just exciting that we’re getting an event at all! After rumors of a March event fell through, and we were getting almost halfway into April, many gave up hope that a spring event would occur at all.

So, even if we don’t get everything we’re hoping for, we get to have an event before June. And that’s a great thing.