Apple’s event invites, and what they actually mean
Writing this, we are hours away from the next Apple Event. The invites went out last week, a fashionable day late, but they did finally arrive. The event, which is named Peek Performance, has us all wondering what, if anything, we should read in to that verbiage.
In the week, more or less, since the invite landed, endless videos & blogs have either been created or written, speculating what these simple two words could potentially mean. One thing you really have to give Apple is that the marketing team do know their stuff. The spelling of the word Peek could mean a look ahead at what is to come this year. Of course, it is also a double entendre, and could very well be that they wanted us to also subliminally think of peak as in pinnacle. Clever boys and girls, aren’t they? As to Performance, well, speed would seem the obvious choice there.
Some have suggested the colours used could be poignant, others that the graphic looks like one half of the highly anticipated AR/VR headset. The game is now very much set, and we will know in a day’s time (at the point of writing), what it all meant. For now, all we do know is the event will happen and something new will be announced.
As we are in full Apple event mode, I thought it may be fun to look back over the years and see if we should be wasting our time looking at this latest invite too closely or not.
Let’s go back
The events actually started as long ago as 2005. Clearly, back then, there was not as much clamour attached to the events, but it was another great idea from the brain of Steve Jobs. He knew, only too well, how invaluable it would be to gain the focus of the worldwide press, and latterly social media too. At this first event, Jobs announced they would transition the Macintosh platform to Intel x86 processors.
Other notable datelines include 2007 Macworld Expo. At that event, the brand itself was renamed to Apple Inc (rather than Apple Computers Inc). We saw the first iPhone launched and the MacBook Air too. Over the next few years, these keynote events heralded some pretty important events or devices. They included the App Store, iPod touch, a new MacBook Pro and a new macOS. Then, in 2010, the invite game started with a vengeance.
Do you get it?
2010 is probably the first time we can accurately state that the invites started to have hidden meanings. With the strap-line of ‘Back to the Mac’, the actual event transpired to be all about Macs, giving us the 2nd generation MacBook Air, macOS Lion, and FaceTime for Mac. Thereafter, well, we were on a roll.
2011
There were two events that year. In March, we had ‘Come see what 2011 will be the year of’ behind a calendar icon, with a tiny bit of an iPad home screen showing top left. A new iPad was, of course, announced. In October, ‘Let’s talk iPhone’ said it all.
2012
The tagline in March of that year was, ‘We have something you really have to see. And touch’. The image showed fingers hovering above what turned out to be a new iPad. Then later that year, a reflection of the date on the invite showed a 5, which turned out to be the event of the iPhone 5.
2013
The tagline ‘This should brighten everyone’s day’ turned out to be a clue as to the colours we’d be getting on the budget iPhone 5c and, among the colourful circles, was a grey, empty circle. That, it transpired, was to be the new home button.
2016
Two really clever invites this year. The ‘see you on the 7th’ invite had a colourful bokeh effect — the event at which portrait mode debuted on the iPhone 7. Then, a month or so later, it was the ‘hello again’ event. This harked back to the original Mac tag from 1984. Inevitably, we got new Macs at the event. The cloudy logo was a clue that we were to get new wallpapers as well, which were included on the latest MacBook Pros.
2018/19
We had two events in 2018, and one of the invites, I particularly like. The ‘gather round’ was very subtle. The artwork was in gold, which was the big new colour on the iPhone XS lineup. In 2019, the ‘It’s show time’ invite gave rise to the new Apple TV+ service. I loved that one.
2020
Do you recall the ‘Hi, Speed’ event? The simple comma in that line had us stumped. Eventually, we got the introduction of 5G for the first time. The circles on the invite exactly matched the bottom of the new HomePod mini, and the dark blue background was the colour of both the latest iPhone 12 & 12 Pro.
Concluding
These are just some highlights from over the years; some of my personal favourites. But, what I think this does show, undoubtedly, is that the invites do matter. Almost universally, these ‘Easter egg’ invites, in retrospect, have ended up giving us something of a strong steer as to what the event would actually end up holding in store for us.
The fun and games are truly under way and the Peek Performance event is just over 24 hours away. I am not going to lie, I am somewhat excited to know, that somewhere in California, a .MOV file is sitting around with all the answers to our questions on it.
If you have my number or email, don’t even think of attempting to reach out to me between 6pm — 7pm GMT on the evening of 8 March. I can absolutely tell you for sure, that I will be busy! Lights down, Apple Notes open and watching the latest Apple performance unfold.
What are you hoping for or looking forward to from the event? I’d love to know.
I will catch you with the answers later this week!
Before you go
Are you subscribed to Medium yet?
I am only one of a whole host of writers here on Medium, the premium blogging site. It is such good value, and you can join here https://medium.com/membership