Apple typically releases new iPads within the fall, however a query mark stays over whether or not that may occur in 2023. We’re now into October, and if Apple plans to launch iPads earlier than the vacations, that is the month it’ll most certainly occur. Here is what we all know up to now.
It has been virtually a 12 months since Apple launched a brand new iPad, the final being the 2 refreshed iPad Professional fashions and the newest low-cost iPad, all launched in October 2022. Happening latest custom, new fashions at the moment are lengthy overdue.
Should you take a look at the final decade, Apple typically holds an annual fall occasion during which it launches new Macs and iPads. Whereas that didn’t occur final 12 months, there have been October occasions in 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2021.
Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman lately instructed The MacRumors Present hosts that he doesn’t anticipate Apple to carry an October occasion as a result of the corporate doesn’t have sufficient new merchandise and options to justify it.
Nonetheless, that does not imply we can’t be seeing new iPads from Apple this 12 months. Apple may select to launch new fashions through press launch as an alternative, prefer it did in January 2023 for the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Professional fashions and the second-generation HomePod. On the similar time, Apple might not have any new fashions forthcoming this facet of Christmas 2023. So what do the rumors say?
Rumors For 2023 iPads
In an article discussing stagnating world pill demand within the second half of 2023, Taiwan-based DigiTimes stated buyers anticipated an uptick in Apple’s share of the pill market owing to orders for a “small-size” iPad within the fourth quarter. Moreover, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman earlier this 12 months reported that an iPad mini replace with a minor “spec bump” is just not out of the query.
Apple is engaged on two new variations of the iPad Air 6, based on a latest report from 9to5Mac. The positioning claims that Apple has 4 separate fashions within the works (two every in mobile and Wi-Fi).
Apple makes two variations of the iPad Professional as a result of it is available in two sizes, and 9to5Mac speculates that Apple may launch a bigger model of the iPad Air to go together with the present 10.9-inch model, or debut “a dearer mannequin with higher specs.” 9to5Mac says that its sources imagine the iPad mini 7 is coming “quickly,” however the report additionally says that the entire new iPads are on observe to be introduced “between now and WWDC 2024 in June,” which is a large window.
Apple final up to date the iPad Air in March 2022 with the M1 chip. If the iPad Air had been to be up to date with the M2 chip one 12 months after the iPad Professional, that will level to an October 2023 launch. Nonetheless, a later launch in 2024 is feasible.
It is value noting that Apple has up to date the entry-level iPad on an annual foundation since 2017, so there’ll both be an Eleventh-generation iPad launched later this 12 months, or Apple will break a six-year custom.
Rumors Towards 2023 iPads
Apple throughout its August earnings name warned that iPad income is predicted to drop double digits, suggesting it doesn’t anticipate to have merchandise to entice prospects in the course of the vacation quarter past the lately launched iPhone 15 sequence and new Apple Watch fashions.
That’s consistent with some rumors, which point out main new iPad launches should not anticipated till 2024. In January, established Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo stated the following iPad mini would probably enter mass manufacturing within the first quarter of 2024. Extra lately, Kuo stated he doesn’t anticipate any new iPad fashions this 12 months. Likewise, a number of rumors counsel iPad Professional fashions with OLED shows and M3 chips will not be coming till 2024.
One different factor to contemplate is the introduction of Apple’s Imaginative and prescient Professional headset. Based on Apple, the Imaginative and prescient Professional will go on sale in early 2024, which probably means January to late April. Notice that the Imaginative and prescient Professional makes use of an M2 chip. If Apple’s $3,500 headset launched with a processor that’s inferior to these already powering iPad Professional fashions, that will appear unusual to the common client.
Summing Up
Summing up, we may see at the least one iPad unveiled in October, maybe an iPad mini, an iPad Air, or an Eleventh-generation low-cost iPad, however these can be minor refreshes. It will be cheap for at the least one or two of those fashions to be up to date in October 2023, however 2024 launches can’t be dominated out.