(Apple email invitation)

Prepare for another Apple event. The company on Wednesday sent invitations to the media, asking them to gather at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., for a product launch event.

Apple is widely expected to introduce a batch of laptops at the event — an area of the company's product lineup that has gone without a major refresh for quite a while. Apple hasn't updated its Retina MacBook Pro or MacBook Air in more than a year; the company did offer a refresh of its MacBook in April. The standard MacBook Pro hasn't had an update in four years.

As a result of the long gap, many Apple experts have advised putting off Mac laptop purchases in anticipation of the new models.

The timing of the event puts Apple in the sweet spot for the holiday season, when it can feature computers running the latest version of its desktop operating system, MacOS Sierra. The new system has a lot of new features, but chief among them is the addition of Siri.

Rumors have been flying for some time about what Apple might have planned for its laptops. In May, reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and 9 to 5 Mac both reported that Apple could be adding a row of touch-screen keys to the top of the keyboard — replacing the "function" keys. Other rumors include the suspicion that Apple will add Touch ID to its laptops, and that the firm will add USB-C to all of its laptop models.