Apple Announces Special Event In March As New iPhone And Mac Rumors Swirl

On Presidents' Day, Apple announced that it will be holding a "Special Experience" in New York City, London, and Shanghai on March 4, 2026, at 9 am ET. The company has invited media personalities to attend the events, marking the second media invite of the year from Apple. It's also worth noting that this is the second consecutive time Apple has described an event as an "experience"

Still, with rumors swirling about new iPhone, Macs, and even iPads on the horizon, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman suggests the company could be planning to unveil some of those products in the days before the "experience" and host a hands-on session with reporters on March 4. So far, there's no word on Apple streaming the experience for the general public.

While we might hear more about the company's plans in the coming weeks, Gurman teased in his Power On newsletter over the weekend that the release of new Macs, iPads, and the iPhone 17e could be imminent. Looking back to the last Apple experience in February, the company announced the Creator Studio bundle and then held an event with influencers. Even though the company also unveiled the second-generation AirTag that week, it didn't address the launch at the Creator Studio experience in California.

Apple released the iPhone 16e last February. If it sticks to a similar schedule with the iPhone 17e, the first week of March would be a reasonable time to release an updated model with a few new features. While this might not be an enticing upgrade for those who bought the iPhone 16e, other customers holding on to an iPhone SE 3 or an older regular iPhone model might be tempted. Rumors suggest that the iPhone 17e will feature a Dynamic Island instead of the iPhone 14-style notch.

Even though this iPhone is still expected to feature a 60Hz OLED display, it will reportedly have a more powerful A19 chip with an updated display engine, added Neural Accelerators for each GPU core and, most importantly, MagSafe capabilities. One of the most notable omissions of the current generation is the lack of MagSafe compatibility.

Now, rumors suggest that Apple will add it, which will improve wireless charging speeds and give this iPhone access to hundreds of MagSafe-compatible accessories. Finally, the company could also give a modest bump to the single 48MP Wide Angle camera and the 12MP selfie camera. We haven't seen any specific rumors about the cameras, but it's possible that the company might have something new in store.

Apple has so many products rumored to be released soon that it's unclear if all of them will make their debuts in the upcoming weeks. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says Apple is getting ready to release the M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro, a MacBook with an iPhone chip, a base-model iPad, and even a new iPad Air.

While the company has plenty of devices to introduce, none of them seem to be significant enough to justify a full event. The M5 Pro and M5 Max chips will offer relatively modest improvements over their predecessors. Meanwhile, the new base iPad will feature a more powerful chip and Apple Intelligence integration, while the next iPad Air is said to adopt the M4 processor.

Without design changes expected, Apple might have decided to go a different direction and introduce these devices in a different environment. At the moment, it's unclear if these new products will be part of these Apple Experience events, but with so many rumors hinting at these launches, it's very likely that the company will reveal at least some of these products before the end of March.