While a larger iPad Pro and a thinner, more powerful iPad mini are likely in the cards for this fall, Apple’s flagship 9.7-inch tablet sounds like it will be left out of this year’s update cycle. In a new report today, hit-or-miss Taiwanese technology trade website Digitimes says that Apple is not preparing a third-generation iPad Air for this fall. This follows up on a report from earlier this year that claimed that such a tablet would not debut until 2016.
So, after updating the 9.7-inch iPad once annually (or twice in 2012) since its debut in early 2010, why would Apple choose to hold off on updating the device in 2015? Here are a few speculative reasons:
- After releasing the iPad Air in 2013 and then redesigning its body and internals only a year later, in 2014, perhaps Apple’s iPad team decided to take a step back from the Air line and focus attention on the iPad mini, which only received a small update last year.
- This prior point could also apply to the upcoming iPad Pro launch, which is likely taking many resources from Apple’s engineering departments.
- What would an iPad Air 3 update have? Natural speculation points to a Force Touch display and perhaps stylus support. With the iPad Pro set to feature both of those additions as a new product line for Apple, the company would likely want the 12.9-inch model to debut the improvements before the existing Air line.
- From a marketing and sales perspective, perhaps Apple wants to give the new iPad mini and iPad Pro the most stage time and spotlight in the market place. With the iPad Air 2 already including a thinner design than the current iPad mini and an A8X processor that fully supports iOS 9’s new split-view features, Apple could hold off on updating the device from a technology standpoint.
Out of character, it appears that Apple is planning to introduce a new iPad at its September 9th event alongside the new iPhones and Apple TV. Over the past few years, Apple has held September events to discuss the iPhone and October events focused around the iPad. If Apple were to introduce a new iPad mini this fall (and no new Air), debuting the sole device alongside the new iPhones and new Apple TV would not take up too much time from the keynote. Apple could then introduce the more important iPad Pro later in the fall, perhaps during the typical October iPad timeframe.
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I don’t think it would be called “iPad pro” – “iPad Plus” seems more realistic…
I think iPad Pro given the use case is what it’ll be called.
This really depends on whether Apple views it Tablets more in line with Laptops and serious computing or it’s smartphones with a focus on portability. I see the iPad as a line of products that merges those two worlds. Therefore, I think they’ll go with iPad Pro. Repeating the same naming scheme as their computers, while the devices run iOS likening them to the power-efficient portable devices they are – it helps to marry the two worlds, and showcase the use case for the iPad in the consumer’s mind.
Give us some certainty here Mark!
Not too much ask…. Simply.
IPads 9.7″ are little sold. THE mini iPad is the big success.
No novelties… R&D? ;-)
That’s not true.
iPad Mini is not a big success.
It might be a success but not a big one.
Why would someone buy a iPad Mini if you can buy a iPad?
iPad is better for video watching, If you can fit a Mini in your purse you as well can fit a iPad Air in it.
Especially if you already have a iPhone 6 Plus the Mini is pretty much useless.
I believe Digitimes got it wrong or misunderstood what is going to happen, which is not surprising.
I think what’s going to happen is that Apple is doing a minor and silent speed bump this year for Air 3 on the website only. After all, there’s really nothing to announce beside the A9 CPU and I don’t think Force Touch is making the iPad this year, it’ll only be on iPhone and iPad gets it next year, like what they did in the past with Touch ID.
Both iPad mini and iPad Pro will be announced, taking up all of the stage time alongside iPhone 6S/6S+. Air 3 would just get a few sec mention to confirm the spec bump.
Force Touch is 100% making the iPad Pro this year. That will be one of the major marketed features. A Force Touch screen with a smart stylus which will enable natural handwriting, drawing, signing, etc.
I can see some people being bummed out, especially if these stylus features are really cool. The larger iPad Pro probably isn’t going to be all that portable and will only cater to a niche market. But I could totally see Apple doing it if they think these features are good enough for the upsell.
The iPad Pro will be just as portable as a a MacBook or MacBooks Air.
Sounds like it will be marketed to enterprise users also. Multitasking and a good stylus will be very useful in marketing it to enterprises.
I really hope that Apple releases a iPad Air 3 with Force Touch and a A9 chip.
Have been saving money for the iPad Air 3, would be a real bummer if it doesn’t launch this year.
Especially because I expect the iPad Pro to be $800
Wouldn’t Apple have to show off something else at the IPad event along with the IPad Pro?
They’ll show off the iMac 21″ with retina display, a 4K display. As well as a new Macmini and maybe a new Mac Pro?
I still bet Apple uses 2 events. One to show new iPhones, announce new Apple TV and IPad Pro and then an October event for release of the TV, iPads and Macs.
I wdon’t she people would stop calling the September iPhone events fall events. September 22 is fall.
Do a price drop instead.
100% wrong 100% of the (Digi)time.
Well, considering that this is a Digitimes report, it’s almost certain there will be an iPad Air 3 debuting this year.
It would be a bold, and foolish move to leave the flagship iPad with a slower CPU/GPU than both the Mini 4 and the Pro, not to mention the iPhone 6S and 6S+.
I can’t see it personally.
The mini 4 is rumored to get A8 processor so the Air wouldn’t be behind.
They’ll have a hard time selling those with an A8. Unless they drop the price. I doubt believe it will have an A8. They’re making it thinner like the iPad Air 2, i doubt they’d spend the resources engineering it differently just to not put the latest chip in it. It may even have Force Touch.
The rumors I seen mini a9 and Apple TV a8. Both should include a9.
The rumors I saw the mini gets a9 and Apple TV a8. They both should include a9.
Maybe all these claims that there will not be an iPad Air 3 is because they’re renaming it back to simply “iPad”.
I agree with it being named the iPad again. I think Apple should go to 18 month cycles on iPad models. Restless new Pro and mini this fall then new 9.7″ model in the spring.
I wish Apple would do a iPad specific iOS update every spring or even the fall to tailor the software more to the device. iOS is still tailed to much to the iPhone. Things like the iPhone getting 6 rows of apps and iPads only 5 kills me. There needs to be more features tailored to make use of the bigger screens of the iPads.
Apps are already designed and optimized for iPad on iOS. The APIs already allow that.
On Android everything is a messed up smartphone only thing even on tablets where apps sucks even more than on smartphones.
Since the last round of iPads and the unveiling of the Apple Watch, I’ve felt that Apple could afford to roll out products bi-annually as a benefit to the customer and the company.
Firstly, products like the watch and iPad simply do not require annual updates. Sure, the watch will get another one or two, but beyond that it–just like th iPad–is not something people really require as an annual update. Investors will scream that it’s a lost revenue stream, but this would be incorrect.
Dropping the annual refresh on *some* products allows more attention to detail on other products and services which inevitably lag and fall into disrepute. Sometimes Apple pumps out something that “just doesn’t work” and allocating resources which would otherwise be used on largely necessary refreshes would get much needed attention.
The additional benefit is that when those bi-annual products *are* refreshed, they’ll actually be something worth talking about. Face it, these days everyone on these Apple boards are more or less bored with guessing what tiny incremental changes Apple is going to make trying to sell you something you don’t really need. By allocating resources and staggering releases, Apple delivers great news products while really managing well the ones that come out of the gate a little premature.
Everybody wins.
*largely unnecessary refreshes
Can I get an edit function up in here, already?
Bad idea. The iPad sales are already declining, not updating a product of the line is definitely not gonna help. They could make least a normal speed bump with the latest A9 chip…
heres a crazy idea, maybe Apple has spotted a new market opportunity and gap, because why else would it blur product lines, cannabilise iPad sales and launch bigger iPhones. Also why wouldn’t it want to launch a competitor to and innovate on the MS surface (which is acknowledged to be a good machine), think windows 10, plugging your phone into a monitor to display a computer screen
If Apple were to release USB-C into the iPhone’s, then this playes nicely into this theory.
I bought a 128GB iPad Air 2 this past weekend because I saved $142 and I wasn’t expecting a dramatically better model this fall.
And they wonder why sales are sagging.
Sales are declining because of iPhone growth and because of market saturation of a product which people aren’t going to purchase anywhere near as much as a very mobile communications device. That’s just a fact. The iPad people upgrade on a several year basis whereas the iPhone has so many potential customers every year, and people like the latest tech in the device that goes everywhere with them. The iPad mainly sits at home for most people, and they can’t justify upgrading a device they only use a 10th as much as their iPhone.
Force Touch and a smart stylus on an iPad pro could change many fields, but one of the most obvious to me is the classroom. Imagine every desk or every student having an iPad Pro. With Force Touch, a smart stylus and locking them down to a specific app, you could have an algebra class where students walk in, and read the material in place of a textbook because the iPad is the textbook, and they’d be able to write naturally, and take notes right in the pages of the textbook, as well as take tests quizzes and homework right on it. You could completely eliminate books, paper, pencils, erasers, binders, everything. A student would carry an iPad pro throughout school and to home, instead of numerous books. A student could send a message through a group chat asking a teacher a question when they were not at school.
If the IPad Pro is a higher end device with more features than the IPad Air, then that would make the Pro version this years “flagship” device. What is there to miss?
A larger iPad will NOT be called iPad “Pro”, that comes from people thinking about the Microsoft Surface Pro. Apple does not use “Pro” in iOS devices, it’s a designation for computers capable of running professional software well, such as Final Cut Pro or Logic Pro.
It will be a larger iPad, but, still an iPad, maybe slightly more capable than a new iPad Air (3), more likely it will be called iPad Plus or iPad Grande or something to designate it is larger, just like the iPad Mini is called Mini because it is smaller than the regular iPad. This would make more sense. Let’s hope Apple makes sense and does not go with what people are calling it. I keep rolling my eyes when I read “iPad Pro”, it’s annoying.
I could be wrong, they called the 6th generation iPhone iPhone 5, which I still think is really stupid, and I hope next year they come up with a new naming scheme for the iPhones, as I still hate it. …Only the iPhone 4 is the one that makes sense as it really was the 4th gen. iPhone with iOS 4. (iPhone 3g was 2nd. gen. iPhone, named for 3g data capability, as iPhone (1) could only do EDGE/2G data. 3gs was 3rd. gen. iPhone).
Does it mean, that Apple will Release the IPad Air 3 First in 2016, or the IPad Air 3 is not planned at all, because the IPad Pro covers all Updates which makes no sense to Release an IPad Air 3? I look foward to your Answer.