24 Apple Predictions for 2024

Making predictions right before each Apple event is too easy — there’s all the rumors these days! This year, I want lay my cards out on the table early so that I can bask in the glory of ‘being right points’ as soon as they happen.

But let’s make this interesting by playing by The Rickies grading system. Correct picks in Round 1 (slots 1-8) and Round 2 (slots 9-16) will be worth 1 point each. Round 3 predictions (slots 17-24), are the riskiest picks and will be worth a whole 3 points each, but any wrong picks in this round will deduct 1 point apiece.

Total possible points: 48

Let’s do this.

Round 1 (the optimistic picks)

1. Vision Pro will be previewed in January.
2. Vision Pro will go on sale in February.
3. Vision Pro will have multiple storage tier options.
4. The next Apple Watch will be called Series X but pronounced “ten”.
5. The Music app will get a major revision.
6. The Apple TV will be revised and include the A17 Pro chip.
7. All new Apple TVs and at least some new iPads will be Carbon Neutral.
8. Apple will commemorate the Mac’s 40th anniversary with some kind of video.

Round 2 (with a few bummers)

9. Mac Pro will not get a beefier “Extreme” series chip.
10. The iPhone SE will be revised but will be larger than the iPhone mini (and I will be sad).
11. There will be no new Apple external display revisions or introductions.
12. FineWoven products will get a major revision that increases durability and premium qualities, but the brand name will remain.
13. At least one new face will join and at least one will depart Apple’s Leadership webpage.
14. An Apple Pencil Pro will replace the Apple Pencil 2.
15. Apple TV+ content will win more Emmy and Oscar awards than in 2023.
16. Apple will acquire at least one household name company (think a NeXT, Beats, Shazam, or Dark Sky).

Round 3 (Risky Picks)

17. Vision Pro will ship in March.
18. There will be a Fitness+ aspect to Vision Pro.
19. AirPods Max will get a revision that includes lossless audio and a lighter-weight design.
20. Lossless audio and other high-bandwidth device-to-device data transfer will be enabled through Ultra Wideband radio chips.
21. iPadOS will gain multi-stream audio capabilities, good for podcasting from the iPad.
22. Shortcuts Personal Automations will come to the Mac.
23. Always-on system extensions will be introduced in iOS/iPadOS to enable things like third-party clipboard managers, text expansion, or launcher apps.
24. Apple will host at least one live event with presenters and an audience in the Steve Jobs Theater.

I Challenge Thee!

Want to make this a thing? I challenge other bloggers to write up their 24 predictions and send me a link. I’ll post them below and at the end of the year we can get together to grade our results. The Winner gets, I dunno, their score in dollars to go toward their blog hosting fees for the next year — crowdfunded by The Losers? Anyone who wants to could ante up $48, and the leftover cash after rewarding The Winner could get pooled and donated to a worthy cause. Or you could just play for glory, that’s great too! Just spitballing here.

Anyway, I’d love to see what you predict Apple will do in 2024!

You could be the first challengee…

Picks not picked

• Kagi will become a built-in search engine option (although, perhaps it shouldn’t be).
• The standalone iTunes apps will go away on all platforms in favor of separate in-app storefronts, but there will still be references to “iTunes”.
• Next-generation CarPlay will not be available on any car that costs less than $100,000.