Radar: Apple's 'Pro and tell' event lands at 19:00 SAST on 28 October as a touchscreen Mac is rumoured

Apple will hold an event called "Pro and tell" in Los Angeles on Wednesday, 28 October, starting at 10am Pacific time, which is 19:00 in South Africa. The company has not said which products it will show. The most persistent report is that it will introduce its first MacBook Pro with a touchscreen.

For South African buyers the useful facts are the date, the time and today's local prices. iStore lists the current 14-inch MacBook Pro with Apple's M5 chip from R40,799, the 14-inch M5 Pro and M5 Max models from R50,999 and the 16-inch from R61,199. Anyone planning to buy a MacBook Pro before the end of the year may want to wait a week to see what replaces those machines and what the new ones cost here.

Apple sells in South Africa through authorised resellers such as iStore rather than its own online store, so local prices and dates come later than the US announcement. After Apple's previous event on 13 October, iStore had rand prices and release dates for the new HomeView, HomePod mini 2 and Apple TV 4K within a week.

Confirmed

Apple announced the event on 19 October, and marketing chief Greg Joswiak shared the invitation on social media. Its tagline is "Pro and tell", and it will take place in Los Angeles at 10am Pacific on 28 October.

The format has not been confirmed. Apple's 13 October "Welcome home" event in New York gave invited media hands-on time while the products were announced in press releases. Apple has not said whether there will be a public livestream this time.

Reported but not confirmed

Most of what is expected comes from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, as summarised by 9to5Mac and other Apple-focused sites. None of it is confirmed by Apple.

The headline item would be redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with OLED touchscreens, reportedly lighter than the current machines and with the Dynamic Island cut-out used on iPhones. A separate 9to5Mac report says they would use the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips already sold here.

Gurman also expects an entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro and an iMac with Apple's next M6 chip, both looking much like the current versions, and an iPad mini with an OLED screen, reworked speakers and a moved front camera.

What this means locally

The pricing question matters more than usual this year. Memory chip prices have risen sharply in 2026, and South African retail prices for PC memory have already jumped. Apple has not said whether new Macs will cost more, and no South African reseller has published prices or dates for any product expected next week.

There is also the matter of what happens to the current range. iStore already marks some older MacBook Pro configurations, including the 14-inch M4 Pro at R49,999 and the 16-inch M4 Max at R69,999, as not available.

Still unresolved

Apple has not confirmed that a touchscreen Mac exists, which products it will announce on 28 October, whether there will be a stream, or when any of it will reach South African shelves. The first confirmed facts arrive at 19:00 on 28 October.