M2 MacBook Air Among Most Likely WWDC Hardware Announcements, AR/VR Headset Unlikely

The redesign of the MacBook Air is the most likely hardware announcement by Apple this year, according to Mark Gurman.

Gurman explained his expectations for potential Apple hardware announcements in the Power On newsletter.

There has been growing enthusiasm about Apple's augmented and virtual reality project, despite the fact that signs of the long-rumored operating system were spotted in Apple source code earlier this year. There were rumors that Apple was going to announce its headset sooner rather than later, after a trademark for realityOS was found, with a foreign filing date of June 8, 2022, just two days after the main WWDC keynote. Gurman is wary of a full-blown announcement of Apple's headset.

In terms of new hardware... though Apple's upcoming mixed-reality headset is full steam ahead — underscored by the recent demonstration of the device to the company's board — I'd be wary of expecting a full-blown presentation for developers and consumers next week.

Gurman previously reported that the launch of the headset will likely be delayed until 2023 due to a plethora of development problems, including issues with overheating from at least one chip on par with the M1 Pro, as well as camera and software challenges.

According to Gurman, Mac-related announcements are more likely this year. He believes that Apple planned to launch a new MacBook Air model with the M2 chip this year, but supply chain issues seem to have complicated the timelines.

If there's any hardware at WWDC, it will likely be on the Mac side. The company has been aiming to launch the next MacBook Air with M2 chips at the conference. The recent supply chain crunch due to Covid-related closures in China has complicated that, but developers say that Apple employees are increasingly using next-generation MacBook Airs with their apps. That's a sign that the new Mac is close.

Major new software updates for Apple's devices, including iOS 16, iPadOS 16, watchOS 9, tvOS 16, and macOS 13, are expected to be previewed on Monday, June 6.