Rumored iPhone SE keynote pushed back to March 21st

Apple CEO Tim Cook

Apple's rumored March keynote has been pushed back to March 21st, one day before Apple is scheduled to argue their case against the FBI in the San Bernardino terrorists iPhone dispute. The alleged date change from March 15th to the end of March was originally reported by the well connected John Paczkowski of Buzzfeed.

Paczkowski claims Apple will unveil the iPhone SE and 9.7-inch iPad Pro at a small event to be held at the company's Town Hall in Cupertino, California. The iPhone SE is a new 4-inch handset, which will be powered by a faster processor and ship with Apple Pay. The last 4-inch Apple device released was the iPhone 5s in 2013. Apple increased the display size of its iPhone lineup to 4.7- and 5.5-inches with the release of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus the following year. The iPhone SE will replace the iPhone 5s in Apple's current lineup ahead of the iPhone 7 launch later this year.

The 9.7-inch iPad Pro is expected to mark the end of Apple's iPad Air lineup. The next-generation iPad is rumored to include an A9X processor, 4GB of RAM, Apple Pencil support and a Smart Connector, just likes its larger counterpart the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

It is unknown if Apple will call the new 9.7-inch iPad the "iPad Pro" or name it something different to avoid confusion, but the rumor mill agrees that the next-generation iPad will not be named the iPad Air 3, like previously expected. Apple has not refreshed its 9.7-inch iPad lineup since 2014. Instead of following its typical release cycle and releasing an iPad Air 3, Apple opted to release a 12.9-inch iPad and new 7.9-inch iPad mini in 2015.