According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple had wanted to start mass production of a new larger iPad in December 2014. However, Apple has apparently sent instructions to suppliers to hold on this product. This is because suppliers are still struggling to meet iPhone 6 Plus demand. The Journal reports that iPhone 6 Plus production is “unsatisfactory”.
“The top priority for the supply chain is to meet the overwhelming demand for the larger screen iPhones. The output of the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus remains unsatisfactory,” said a person at a supplier. “It would be challenging for display makers to split resources and spend a few months to ramp up production for a new larger screen iPad now.”
Seemingly, display makers cannot deal with a new larger iPad on top of the iPhone 6 Plus supply requirements. However, it does appear that suppliers are readying production of the widely-rumored 12 inch Retina MacBook (Air?), with the report saying that this product will enter production in December. If true, it is possible that if Apple may unveil the laptop at its event on October 16th, it won’t be made available for sale for several months yet.
Expectations for a larger iPad began in 2013, with Bloomberg reporting that Apple was exploring 12.9-inch tablets. The rumor mill has ramped significantly since then, with Bloomberg reporting that Apple was ready to release a 12.9-inch iPad in early 2015. KGI has also corroborated the large iPad claim. Apple has been testing iPad split-screen multitasking features, which seem well targeted for a larger iPad’s display.
Until the WSJ’s report today, murmurs about the 12-inch Retina MacBook had subsided with many believing it was not on track for an unveiling this year. However, a recent report said that the product will be released in multiple colors to match the iPhone: space gray and gold.
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Not even mentioned on the Apple web site?????
This was a semi-interview it seems… the iPhone 6 specs weren’t posted on the website before the unveiling but even before that, people knew what most of the specs were.
I think that’s would be a mistake on the part of Apple. A lot of iPads are purchased for Christmas than are Macs. Apple should be aiming for at least Black Friday for iPads and waiting until 2015 for the Macs.
Well they’re probably still releasing new iPad Minis and Airs next week. I think a larger iPad is more of a Pro market device and not a Christmas present.
I’m really curious on what they’re going to announce come next week since whatever they announce will become largely a large banner that says: Don’t buy anything this Christmas except the iPhone. If they can’t deliver the large iPad or new Macbook Air come holidays I would think sales would suffer no? Which begs to question what they actually will announce in order to maintain their momentum whilst keeping Apple’s infamous pace in check.
It’s hard to release the 12″ MacBook Airs without Broadwell chips. Any new Mac released this year will have minimal spec bumps.
Apple at this point is still dependent on Intel and other suppliers for the release of products. The release of Macs has always fluctuated and will until Apple starts putting its own CPU’s in them.
On iPads we will only get a refreshed Air this year the 12.9″ and Mini will have to wait for a spring release.
If prodction of so called 12-inch Macbook have to start in December, than there is great possibility it will already be annouced with new Broadwell chip inside. As Intel said: new chips are comming early 2015 and Apple always have them few month before than they are realeased.
Whatever new iPads and Macs Apple is planning to release, it’s likely a good wager that the factories are already in high gear producing units for the holiday sales season. For example, my iPhone 6 has an August production date despite its delivery in late September.
This is exactly why Apple should stop cramming all their product releases into the end of the year. Remember when Apple actually had product events outside the fall? I don’t understand why they keep doing this. Remember when the latest iMac was announced? You couldn’t get one until after the holidays.
Based on Tim Cook’s own words, they may have fallen behind schedule in their product development. At one point he said they had products in the pipeline “across 2014”. Obviously that didn’t happen.
The last iMac was probably one of Apple’s worst product launches. With Intel not having Broadwell chips ready until next year, most Macs will probably see a spring refresh after Intel has a steady stream of Broadwell chips.
Hopefully soon Apple will chart making their own chips for Macs so they will have more flexibility on release dates of products. I hope Apple makes one model of the next generation of MacBook Airs with Its own ARM chip to see how they do designing Mac chips.
With the current WWDC cycle with previews of iOS and OS X with release of each in September and October each year, I don’t think Apple will be stop the heavy release of new products in the fall.
Hopefully Apple will move the iPad Mini and iPad Pro to a spring release with updated versions of iOS with iPad specific tweaks. iOS 7 and iOS 8 hasn’t had many tweaks for the iPad. The ui for the iPad is needing some love.
We won’t be seeing ARM Macs for a VERY long time. ARM isn’t nearly powerful enough (just because you can pile cores upon cores doesn’t mean the software can split tasks among cores) and x86 compatibility is far too important. It takes more than a simple recompile.
I always questioned this move. As a buyer I’d rather spread purchases across the year when it’s time to refresh rather than have to splurge on everything at once. I do get the point of wanting to take advantage of the holiday season but even then budgets are still limited. If you think about it another way, iPads would be great for back-to-school and iPhones are great as Christmas gifts.
On the business end for Apple, I obviously don’t know what happens in the board/conference room, but I’d think from a production perspective, it would be easier to also spread production across the year – ramp up one line when another is mid-cycle and slowing down – rather than place such strain on supply chains all at once.
We’ll see how it plays out.
Makes sense.
maybe it’s just but it doesn’t make sense to produce both a 12.9″ iPad and a 12″ rMBA that would effectively compete with each other. I would rather Apple converge the two and make a Surface Pro 3 competitor.
Apple isn’t nearly that stupid. iOS and OS X will remain separate and distinct. Apple is making it simple to transfer data between the two systems instead of merging the two systems. Trying to merge a mobile OS and a desktop OS resulted in the ever popular Windows 8. The data is important, not the OS. Microsoft didn’t understand that and came up with an OS less popular than Vista.
They’ve explicitly said they don’t want to do that. But who knows. There are rumors about such a device.
What would be a use case for a 12.9″ iPad? I suppose accidentally dropping one on your face can’t be a pleasurable experience.
When is Apple going to integrate their tablets and phones better? Where both devices can have cellular access (phone and internet) allowing the other device to power down since you don’t need a LTE to Wifi hotspot sucking power.
They can share a SIM card and through the software power down.
When you want to switch back, it sync up between the device.
I don’t understand. The 12 inch MacBook isn’t replacing the 13in is it?. Or is this going to be a replacement for the 11 in air?
Early rumors said that the 12 inch air is almost the same width and length as the 11 inch, only thinner. So maybe there will be a 14 inch air with the same physical size as the current 13 inch air
Wrong.
The issue is providing enough 6+ and iPad Air displays along with the iPad Pro displays. Air is going to 3x point res, so 2304×3072 @396ppi. Same display tech and density as the 6+. So same manufacturing process.
Pro is likely the same 2304×3072 res as the Air on a 12.9″ screen, so it wil be ~300 ppi.
Edit: should read @~396ppi. I calculated it from the screen diagonal which slightly underestimates the pixel density. So expect identical to 6+: 401ppi.
This new iPad is going to rock.
I get this feeling that Apple is going to go with 3 sizes for many of their products.
There are already two sizes of iPads, with rumors of a third larger size on the way soon.
And wouldn’t it be sweet if they brought back the 17 inch Macbook?? Boom three sizes of Macbook pros. And it’s said that there will be a new size of Macbook Air to fit between the current two, making it 3 airs (though it’s hard to forsee what their strategy will be a year from now. Either the 11 and 13 inches get redesigned too or there will be a 14 inch model and the 11 and 13 get dropped).
The phones have become larger at 4.7 and 5.5 inches, but I believe that they will release an iPhone next year with a close-to 4 inch screen. (I’m praying that this is true. And that Apple gets that there are people who like smaller phones
Now here is where it might sound crazy… But with the Apple Watch coming with two sizes initially, I think Apple is anticipating a sort of Pipboy-styled device with a much larger screen coming in the next few years, because things just always end up getting bigger… The only thing that I wouldn’t quite be able to figure out is where the imac and the forthcoming television fit into this. 3 sizes for those too? I doubt it.
But mainly I would like the 17 inch Macbook back please :)
Is it going to be a MacBook Pro, MacBook Air or a MacBook come back? If it’s just going to be a MacBook, that might mean the 13 inch MacBook Pros might be getting quad core processors.