Apple won’t refresh the 9.7-inch iPad Air this year, and its fourth-generation iPad miniwill be the last, according to a questionable new report out of China. This fall’s refresh is expected to include only the much-anticipated iPad Pro, alongside the iPad mini 4.
Economic Daily Times reports that Liaoxian Li, an investment advisor at Fubon Hardware, does not expect Apple to launch three new iPads this fall. As it looks to place focus on its larger iPad Pro, which is expected to come with a 12.9-inch display, the Cupertino company could skip an iPad Air 3 this year.
There will be a new iPad mini, Liaoxian claims, but it may be Apple’s last. It’s thought the company will ditch its smaller, 7.85-inch tablet and reduce its lineup to just the iPad Pro and the iPad Air in the years ahead. The good news for iPad mini fans is that this year’s refresh is said to be a good one.While the iPad mini 2 was essentially a smaller version of the iPad Air with similar internals, the iPad mini 3 is very much the same as its predecessor but with the addition of Touch ID. It wasn’t really worth the upgrade for existing users, then, but the iPad mini 4 is likely to be different.
We probably shouldn’t expect it to offer the same internals as the iPad Pro, though. It’s more likely a new iPad mini would have similar specifications as the iPad Air 2 we have today.
It goes without saying that this report should be taken with a pinch of salt. This is the first time we’ve heard that there won’t be a new iPad Air this year, and that Apple will ditch the iPad mini altogether — and both claims seem rather unlikely at this point.
It’s certainly possible that the iPad Air 3 will be an incremental upgrade that will only offer minor improvements over the iPad Air 2 — but we don’t think Apple will skip the refresh altogether this year.
[via Macotakara]
No comments:
Post a Comment