Apple opens week of product launches with refreshed low-cost iPhone and a faster iPad Air, as it begins what looks to be a broader multi-day hardware push.

Apple has kicked off the week with the announcement of a new iPad Air, now powered by the M4 chip. This is a fairly modest update, moving the device from the previous M3 to the M4 but otherwise keeping the same hardware and design. The company also announced a new price-friendly smartphone, the iPhone 17e.

Apple looks set to launch a touchscreen MacBook Pro, but it would be better off trying to improve another device already in its portfolio.

And CEO Tim Cook more or less confirmed this when he posted that the company had “a big week ahead,” starting on Monday. Apple is most likely planning multiple days of product launches announced via press release on its Newsroom site,

Apple CEO Tim Cook today teased "a big week ahead". "It all starts Monday morning," said Cook, in a social media post, with an #AppleLaunch hashtag and a short video that ultimately shows an Apple logo on a Mac.

According to a tweet from Tim Cook posted on Thursday, this is going to be a “big week” of Apple announcements. And in the sense that it’ll bring the first round of new Apple products this year, it’ll certainly be newsworthy. But I suspect that it won’t be particularly big.