Apple sets October 28 "Pro and tell" event, expected to show its first touchscreen Mac laptop

Apple sent invitations Monday for a product event on October 28 in Los Angeles, which it is calling "Pro and tell," CNBC reported. Bloomberg's headline said the event is expected to show a touch-screen MacBook Pro. Apple has not said what it will announce. At 3:19 PM ET Apple shares were $343.06, down 0.12%, according to Nasdaq.com.

What is known and what is analyst expectation

• Confirmed by the invitation: the date, the Los Angeles location, and the "Pro and tell" wording, which CNBC read as pointing to high-end devices built on Apple's own chips.
• Expectation, not confirmation: Melius Research analyst Ben Reitzes wrote Monday that he expects new Macs this fall, "including a touchscreen notebook." Apple's software chief Craig Federighi said in 2018 that touchscreen laptop ergonomics would fatigue users, so a touchscreen would reverse a long-held position.
• The cadence: CNBC said this is the third launch under CEO John Ternus, who succeeded Tim Cook last month, after the iPhone event on September 9 and a New York event for smart-home devices. Reitzes called the pace a "meaningful shift" from two events a year.

The number behind the number

A new laptop is a smaller swing for Apple than the headlines suggest. CNBC reported that Macs were about 10% of revenue last quarter, with the iPhone still the dominant business. The iMac has not been updated since October 2024, and Apple refreshed the Mac Mini and Mac Studio in August and the MacBook Pro in the spring. The larger story CNBC highlights is AI: Apple's chips can reach more memory at higher speed than most consumer processors, and last week Apple and Meta said they would bring a large open-weight model to high-end Mac Studios.

The overlap with the Fed

The Federal Reserve's meeting is October 27 and 28, per the Fed's calendar, so the rate decision and Apple's event share a day. We did not find the event's start time in what we read, so we cannot say which comes first. For the rate debate, see our Fed story. For businesses, a premium-priced laptop launches into the same rate environment as a 7.4% mortgage; consumer financing and trade-in demand are the things to watch in Apple's next earnings, not this event.

See today's wider moves in our afternoon market report.

Sources: CNBC; Bloomberg; Nasdaq.com quote (3:19 PM ET); Federal Reserve. Data may be delayed. This is market information, not investment advice.