Visualizing Apple Product Release Patterns

Updated 1/20/23

Click to see each product line: iPhone - iPad - Apple Watch - Apple TV - MacBook Pro - MacBook Air - iMac - Mac Studio - Mac Pro - Mac Mini

Apple's customers and the press expect new hardware product updates for each product category from Apple every year, but Apple's corporate secrecy makes it difficult to predict when new products will be released.  Complicated, scattered data, put together here for easy reference.  Starting with data from 2007, these designs use an annual calendar data visualization to clearly show both product announcements and release dates for Apple's major products.  The patterns were easier to understand when the product categories were broken apart into separate infographics.

Bookmark and return to this page in the future as it will be updated as new products are announced and released.  Please share any suggestions or feedback for future revisions in the comments on the blog post.

In 2011 when Tim Cook took over as Apple’s CEO, Apple shifted the release dates for iPhones to annual September launch events.  You can also see a consistent pattern of the announcement one week, and the products released the following Friday.

Starting in 2020, we are beginning to see two iPhone announcements each year. A major launch in the Fall and a minor announcement in the Spring. In 2020, the major launch moved to October, which was related to supply chain issues from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Apple’s iPads don’t have the same repeatable pattern as iPhones, but the last six years have seen a consistent iPad announcement in March. Some years have an additional announcement in the Fall, but it’s not consistent. A very general trend is the iPad Pro models are launched in the Spring, and other iPad models are launched in the Fall.

Since 2016, new Apple Watch hardware has consistently been announced at the iPhone Events in September every year.

MacBook Pros have been regularly getting updates once a year, but not in any particularly consistent month.

Lately, the iMacs have only been getting updates every other year. With the introduction of the Apple M1 processor, only the 24” iMac has been getting updates.

In 2022, Apple introduced a new Mac design called the Mac Studio

No pattern here. Apple releases new Mac Pros only when they feel like it. The last three announcements (dating all the way back to 2012) happen at WWDC in June.