Apple to release host of new kinds of products including headphones and ‘Apple Tag’, report claims

Cursed 'AirPower' project could return as Apple prepares iPhone SE 2 and new iPad

An attendee wears an Apple AirPods during a launch event on September 7, 2016 in San Francisco, California (Stephen Lam/Getty Images)

Apple is set to release a host of new kinds of products that it has never made before, according to a new report.

The company is readying headphones and a tracking chip that can be attached to objects to stop them getting lost, usually reliably analyst Ming-chi Kuo said. It could also be planning to bring back a wireless charging pad – reminiscent of the AirPower project that was previously announced and then failed to appear.

The products are all expected to come in the first half of this year, Kuo reported, and could be announced at Apple's rumoured event in March.

The report makes reference to a variety of updates that have long been rumoured to arrive. It indicates that the iPhone SE 2, a new iPad Pro and updated MacBooks are on the way, as previous rumours have suggested.

But it also suggests that a number of Apple products are coming that are not updates but entirely new kind of products for the company.

Rumours have suggested that Apple has been planning a tracking chip for some time. It would work like products already offered by companies like Tile: allowing people to stick the tracker to items such as keys or a wallet, and use the phone to find them.

The tracking chip has been rumoured since last year, and an "ultra wide band" chip that was included in the latest phones appears to have been targeted at that precise feature. Updates to the Find My app on iPhones – which currently only locates friends and Apple devices – also suggest that the tracker could be used from within there.

The tracker had been expected to arrive last year, potentially alongside the iPhone 11. The new report suggests that it has not been cancelled and is still expected to arrive later this year.

Apple is also rumoured to be working on new headphones, which would include the technology from the AirPods put them in a design that goes over the ears rather than inside of them. Beats already makes headphones with some of those same features.

The return of the charger is perhaps the most unexpected of the newly rumoured updates. Apple first unveiled its AirPower charging mat in 2017 and then cancelled it last year amid rumours that the technology was proving too difficult, but Kuo claims it will return though perhaps in a different form.