Apple in the year 2018

A quick look into what Apple will & might be bringing to 2018, from new iPhones, Speakers and Macs, it’s sure to be another huge year for the company that’s close to becoming the first one trillion dollar company!

The iPhone X — The future of smartphones

The 2017 Recap — A rollercoaster year

No matter what happens during the year for Apple it’s always going to be successful due to it’s domination of the mobile market, but that doesn’t mean they don’t ever have their failures or mishaps. Here’s a quick recap of 2017, incase you missed anything:

iPhone X — Apple released this amazing new iPhone which ditched the fingerprint scanner (TouchID) for the incredibly sophisticated facial recognition (FaceID). It has a beautiful edge-to-edge screen and new gestures to navigate through iOS. I love it. Updated iPhones, 8 and 8+ — both include the usual yearly improvements but now have glass backs to support wireless charging, finally! Apple Watch Series 3 — Apples third revision to the worlds most popular Smart Watch included built in cellular which means you can now use it without your iPhone (in some countries at least). Apple TV 4K — The new Apple TV now finally supports 4K! iMac Pro — The iMac Pro is one of those computers Apple makes that most of us will never touch (or see) due to it’s very high starting price but will have you tempted as it’s available in Space Grey…Fancy! Software — Every year is a big year for Apple in terms of software, with endless updates to existing OS’s, completely new OS’s and it’s ever growing list of API’s that allows developers to build better Apps. Security — Apple let some very shocking bugs into their software this year which had them under the public eye. The worst being a vulnerability that let anyone log into a Mac using root credentials. Yikes! Apologies — Yes you don’t often see Apple having to apologise but 2017 was the year. The apology was forced because it became public that Apple has being “secretly” slowing down iPhones (to prevent random shutdowns) when the batteries we’re no longer performing at 100%.

A big year for Apple but 2018 has the potential to be even bigger so lets have a look to see what we might being seeing this year.

2018, show us whats up

Apple of course teases new products at their events throughout the year like at WWDC so we have a good idea of what this year will bring, check out the list below to see what has been confirmed and what might be announced.

1. The HomePod

Apple’s first ever Smart Speaker was announced last year. The HomePod is a voice controlled (Siri) speaker which will be competing against other smart speakers like the popular Amazon Echo (Alexa) and Google Home (Google Assistant).

The HomePod aims to be the control hub for your home, you’ll be able to use Siri to do all the things she already does like control HomeKit, play music via Apple Music and even make calls via your iPhone, iPad or Mac. It also aims to be your go to speaker when playing music around the house, the tech inside the HomePod looks outstanding so I can only assume that the sound and spatial awareness will be well worth the $349 USD price tag.

Apple actually planned to release this during 2017 but ran into delays so we’ll likely see this released late January. I’m very excited to get my hands on one of these to see how it stands up against other smart speakers. We’ll have to see if Apple can somehow dig it’s way into a pretty well established market.

2. AirPower

The iPhone 8 and X finally brought us wireless charging but came with no way to take advantage of this tech unless you brought a third-party charger. Apple knew this was an issue but obviously hadn’t completed development of their new wireless charger so had to release it separately. To be honest i’m kind of glad because purchasing an iPhone X emptied my purse…

The new charger named AirPower will enable you to charge up to 3 compatible devices — like an iPhone X, Apple Watch and AirPods. All without having to plug anything in. Glorious.

Apple hasn’t yet given a release date but I expect this to be around the same time as the HomePod (during a Q1 event). The price for this “mat”? $199…

Apple is looking to be the first ever company to be worth 1 trillion dollars. Yeah I have to think about that each time as well…That’s this many zeros: $1,000,000,000,000…

3. Mac Pro

Apple is expected to release a completely new version of its infamous “Trash Can” Mac Pro this year which is extremely exciting for pro users. We don’t often see two Pro machines released in the space of 12 months so it will be interesting to see what Apple can pack into the Mac Pro to differentiate it from the iMac Pro. Rumours suggest it will be modular, allowing users to swap out parts depending on their needs and of course extremely powerful!

Apple’s been busy during the last year so I don’t expect this to be shipped in 2018 but we’ll definitely see a preview at this years WWDC.

4. iPhones & iPads

We always get treated to improved iPhones and iPads each year but this year will likely see a few more than usual due to FaceID from the iPhone X. Customer feedback for FaceID has been amazing and I’m sure Apple knew how good the tech was before they released it so one can only assume they’ve already started integrating it into existing products. I’m struggling to use my iPad now thanks to my iPhone X and I doubt Apple will want to be supporting both TouchID and FaceID when one is obviously superior. This applies to iOS also, having two versions if iOS isn’t good for anybody.

We might also see a new version of the iPhone 5C, iPhone SE, an additional iPhone X (larger version like the 8+ possibly called iPhone XL) and of course those yearly improvements and features Apple throws in for good measure.

5. Apple Watch

2017 brought us cellular to the watch but also brought us battery issues and limited access to the cellular feature due tech outside of Apples control.

Although Apple hasn’t announced anything, I’m sure we’ll see improvements to battery to support cellular usage as well as improvements to the underlying technology that lets us use it. This will allow more customers around the world to take advantage of the cellular features.

I also have my fingers crossed for a slight redesign. The watch has pretty much stayed the same in terms of size since it was launched. I’d love to see it get thinner and have more screen and less bezel. Maybe 2018 is the year?