Apple confirms a 13 October launch called Welcome home, with an invitation-only press event in Tribeca, New YorkApple confirms a 13 October launch called Welcome home, with an invitation-only press event in Tribeca, New York

Apple has confirmed a product launch for Tuesday 13 October, under the tagline Welcome home.

Greg Joswiak, Apple's head of worldwide marketing, posted a short teaser video on X on 8 October with the words "Welcome home. October 13." At the same time, members of the press were invited to what Apple calls an Apple Experience in Tribeca, New York, at 9am Eastern time, according to 9to5Mac and MacRumors. That is 2pm in London and 6.30pm in India. 9to5Mac shared the invitation as posted by the YouTuber Marques Brownlee.

What Apple has and has not said

Apple has confirmed the date, the tagline and the New York venue, and nothing else. It has not named a product. It has not said whether there will be a streamed presentation or whether the products will arrive as press releases and videos, with hands-on sessions for invited press in New York. MacRumors says the timing on the day is unknown.

What is expected on 13 October?

Everything below is reported, not confirmed. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said again on his Power On podcast on 8 October that Apple plans an online home event that day for three products, all built around Siri AI: a new smart home hub, a new HomePod mini and a new Apple TV 4K. That matches Bloomberg's original account of the home hub, HomePod mini and Apple TV launch.

MacRumors' summary of the rumours describes the hub as a cross between an iPad and a HomePod with a roughly 6-inch square screen, in a wall-mounted version and one on a half-dome speaker base. A camera and presence sensor would recognise who is in the room and show them their own widgets and apps, and the price could be around 350 dollars. The HomePod mini is expected to get new colours, Apple's N1 wireless chip and a faster processor for Siri AI. The Apple TV 4K is expected to get an A19 or A19 Pro chip, more memory, the N1 chip and a new Siri Remote.

Could the iPad mini or the MacBook Pro appear too?

MacRumors says the OLED iPad mini could come at the home event, but its sources also point to a separate launch in the last week of October, most likely of Macs. There is a new claim about that iPad mini, and it is in the Unverified grade. The Naver blogger yeux1122 says production has been confirmed for a 60Hz LTPS OLED panel, not a 120Hz ProMotion one. The same account made the same claim in July. 9to5Mac points out that both reports come from that one source, whose record it calls very mixed, and nobody has corroborated it. Apple's code has so far pointed only to an A20 Pro chip and a landscape front camera in the next iPad mini.

On the MacBook Pro, Gurman replied on X late on 7 October that he does not think the OLED model will be "significantly thinner in the end". MacRumors notes that this softens his reports from October and November 2025 of a thinner chassis, while his latest newsletter still says it will be significantly lighter. MacRumors expects new Macs at a later launch rather than on 13 October.

Our take

Apple's confirmation settles the one thing the reporting could not: there is a launch, with a physical venue. The tagline points squarely at the home and fits Gurman's three products. The New York format, an experience for invited press rather than a keynote in Cupertino, suggests hands-on time with devices rather than a long stage presentation, though Apple has not said.

APPDOOK would watch two things on the day. The first is price: at around 350 dollars, the hub would cost far more than the smart displays from Amazon and Google it competes with, and Apple will have to argue that Siri AI justifies the gap. The second is Europe. A device whose main interface is Siri AI meets a market where Siri AI could stay off iPhones for five months or more. Whether the hub launches in the EU at all, and what it does there without Siri AI, will say a lot about how much of the product depends on it.

On the iPad mini, a 60Hz OLED panel would be a let-down next to the 120Hz iPhone 17, but Apple still ships 60Hz OLED in the iPhone 17e, so it is not implausible. One account repeating itself is still one source, and we would treat it as unproven until a second one appears or Apple shows the product.