Apple may have a busy March with a rumored larger iPad Air, OLED iPad Pros, and new Macs
The end of the winter may herald hardware refreshes for Apple, with a new report from the industry's most prolific leaker predicting the long-rumored larger iPad Air and refreshed MacBook Air models will hit store shelves by the end of March 2024.
iPad Pro
To combat sales doldrums for Mac and iPad, Apple is rumored to be prepping many new releases before the first calendar quarter of 2024 ends. On tap are allegedly a larger iPad Air, new iPad Pros with OLED screens, and a New MacBook Air model, presumably with M3 processor.
New iPad Air with larger screen
On tap for March 2024 is said to be a 12.9-inch iPad Air, matching the size of the current largest iPad Pro. As previously reported, four models are said to be in the works. Two models are for the existing size, and two for the larger 12.9-inch size.
The larger iPad Air rumor isn't new and has been hinted at for over a year. It was once expected to debut in October 2023, but that obviously didn't pan out.
iPad Pro with OLED
Perhaps the most common iPad Pro rumor is the shift to OLED displays. The new models are expected to arrive at the same time as the 12.9-inch iPad Air. They are expected to finally get that OLED screen and the M3 processor that came in October.
No size changes are expected. As with the two iPad Air sizes, four models are also being prepared.
In early 2023, rumors were indicating that Apple intended to update the iPad Pro lineup with new display technology. A report in July said that the production of the 11-inch and 13-inch OLED iPads, which mark the first use of OLED technology in the Apple iPad series, will start in the first quarter of 2024.
A new Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard is rumored to arrive at the same time as well. The new Magic Keyboard is rumored to be aluminum-clad versus the existing material.
MacBook Air with M3
There isn't much said about the new MacBook Air in Wednesday's report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. They are said to be codenamed J613 and J615 and come in the same design, with a boost from the M3 processor.
Later in 2024
The Apple Vision Pro is still on track for early 2024, but no date has yet been announced.
Touched on in Wednesday's report is a forthcoming Apple Watch with blood pressure sensing. Also rumored is a refresh to the iPad mini, a new low-end iPad, and non-Pro AirPods with USB-C charging.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
$600 iPA11 64GB M2 LCD
$800 iPA13 64GB M2 LCD
$900 iPP11 128GB M3 OLED
$1200 iPP13 128GB M3 OLED
The OLED has to be adding at least $100 to the prior iPP price tiers. Then there is the juxtasposition of the MBA13 w/M3 for $1100 and LCD. You could get an iPP with OLED for the same price as an MBA? Tough choice. If Apple enable unlimited multitasking, unlimited windows and Terminal.app on iPadOS, I could get by with an iPP13 as my work computer, but they aren't going to do that. So tough choice.
Then, the iPA models will surely be limited to 256GB or 512GB of storage. How many people upsell to the iPP models will determine how healthy the market of high end iPad users is. I think I'm all in on a 16GB RAM model, which probably means iPP13 1TB.
Was hard for me to include 256 for the iPP because OLEDs are going to be expensive! An iPA13 M2 8GB 128GB at $800 is cheap! Apple doesn't do cheap. The MBA13 with M1 8GB 256GB, basically a 4 year old machine next year, is still being sold at $1000. How would something like that drop to $800? Some question for the MBA13 M2? How does it drop to $800? Hence, that convinced me that iPA models will start out at 64 GB storage.
The big differences between the MBA13 and iPA13 are basically battery capacity, a capacitive touch layer, keyboard, hinge, and a touch pad. That's maybe a $100 to $200 difference. So, if the iPA13 has 128GB, I think that means $900 price point, not $800. I think a lot of users will be fine with 64GB because it will just be a web browser and streaming media machine to them.
$330 iPad Classic, please retire
$400 iPad 10.9, 11th gen with A15
$500 iPad Air 8.7" A16
$600 iPad Air 11" M2
$800 iPad Air 12.9" M2
$900 iPad Pro 11 M3
$1200 iPad Pro 12.3" M3
$1500 iPad Pro 14.1" M3, sooner or later
In retrospect, I would probably have been just as happy (or more) with a reimagined 11” MacBook Air or 12” MacBook equipped with the latest fan-less variant of Apple Silicon. However, I still recognize that some people use an iPad Pro as a drawing tablet and wouldn’t be well served by something with a permanent keyboard attached and no touchscreen. The current iPad Pro with its separate Magic Keyboard serves many needs of just about anyone who’s content living with what iPadOS has to offer, which is quite substantial but still not functionally equivalent to what macOS delivers.
Could a MacBook Air convertible with touchscreen serve in the same role as iPad Pro w/Magic Keyboard? Probably. Would anyone buy it? Probably. Would Apple ever build it? Probably not, based on what Apple has shown us so far. In any case, I still find a smaller MacBook Air or MacBook equivalent being something that I would find intriguing. The way I actually use my iPP+MK is telling me so. In desktop use the iPP+MK is exceptionally comfortable to use. However, in chair or sofa mode, the iPP+MK is less than ideal.
I completely agree with the handling difficulties of the larger iPads. This is most noticeable using these devices in portrait orientation. When it comes to portrait oriented use the iPad mini is the easiest and things go down from there as screen size increases. Apple has made some improvements on the 12.9” size by reducing the size of the screen bezels, but it is still a beast of a tablet. The thought of iPad sizes getting even larger is kind of scary as far as handling is concerned. But if anyone can pull it off successfully, it will be Apple.
We've been living with 8.5x11 inch paper and notebooks for a long time. That's 13.9" diagonal. A notebook with that paper size is obviously lighter, easier to handle than an iPP13. So, there is room for 14" tablet imo, but it needs to be more square and light. As long as Apple uses glass, metal and the current battery designs, tough to see it hitting 1.5 lb though. Perhaps Apple will present it as a more desktop device than mobile device.
Would you use a 2-in-1 macOS laptop in tablet mode? Where and doing what?
I'm curious how many 2-in-1 laptop owners actually use it as tablet. The size of 2-in-1 laptops have all grown to 13" displays or larger. I think that means they are just being used as clamshell laptops, even the detachables. The 2-in-1s are 2+ lb. The detachables w/o the keyboard are about 1.7 to 2 lb. If there was a lot of tablet usage, there would be a lot of models in the 10 to 12 inch range.
Part of the problem could just be Intel. There might be another push for detachables next year with Meteor Lake and Snapdragon Elite. Could be another reason for the rumored iPA12.
Of course it’s possible, but improbable, that iPadOS will ultimately evolve to the point where it can truly replace at least some versions of the MacBook Pro.