Will Apple Unveil iPad Plus, Retina MacBook Air On March 9? Analyst Weighs In

Apple Inc. AAPL has been rumored to be developing a large iPad -- an iPad Plus, if you will -- for more than a year. Could it finally surface at Apple's next media event?

The Cupertino, California-based tech giant is hosting an event on Monday, March 9.

The company sent out invites with a simple tagline: "Spring Forward."

"If you look at the sequence of rumors that have been put in place, the rumors have been on a large iPad," Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry told Benzinga. "The rumors have been put on a MacBook Air with a Retina Display. The rumors have also been put on cars and on Apple Watch."

In May 2014, IHS Inc. IHS analyst Andrew Rassweiler speculated that a Retina Display could add $100 or more to the MacBook Air's price tag.

"[A] Retina Display for the 13.3-inch MBA format would cost around $40 to $50 more than the current configuration (materials costs only)," Rassweiler told Benzinga. "That would theoretically mean something like $100+ more at retail for the 13.3-inch format."

Investors may not want to get their hopes up, however. Chowdhry said that Yerba Buena Center (where the March event will take place) is a much smaller venue than the one Apple used last fall. "If you look at what is most likely, I think it could be Apple Watch only," Chowdhry said of the event.

Related Link: How Apple Could Add $100 Billion To Its Market Cap

An 'Educational' Event

Apple once held an event that focused on textbooks. The company is unlikely to bore investors with similar details this time around, but Chowdhry still expects it to be an educational event.

"I think what you will see is more in terms of the capabilities of the device," said Chowdhry. "The conference [will be] more educational in nature. Google [and other smartwatch makers] failed for the same reason: people don't know what to do with them. Have you seen Google show how to use Moto 360? No. They have a problem in the Android ecosystem of launch and forget."

"Launch and forget," a term Chowdhry coined, refers to a device that is abandoned by manufacturers immediately after it arrives at retail.

"I think this event is more about educating people about the use of Apple Watch so that people know all that it's about," he added. "So they can appreciate it and use the product."

Chowdhry expects this to be Apple's first phase in showing the potential of Apple Watch. He's watching for a second phase to be demonstrated at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.

Image credit: Matt Buchanan, Wikimedia