Apple will reportedly make some changes next year that it hopes will make it easier for people to tailor a specific iPad to their needs. For example, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman wrote in its Switched on Today's newsletter that the next iPad Air will receive an M2 chip in addition to the rumored second larger model.
One of the other ways Apple is supposedly addressing the issue is by scrapping the ninth-generation model that has been hanging at the front of the lineup since the more expensive redesign of the 10th-generation iPad was released last year. Gurman says shelving the ninth-generation iPad will allow the company to “phase out some of its older Pencils.” Presumably, the 2015 Apple Pencil will be the first to go, once there's no iPad with a Lightning port to awkwardly connect it to.
Gourmet March has been set for the launch of the new 11 and 12.9-inch iPad Air, which would maintain Apple's mid-level in a two-year update cycle. Their report today that the Air will get an M2 chip while the Pro models will get the M3 nod would firmly leave the Air one generation of processors behind. But that doesn't mean that the iPad Air will suffer because of it, nor that Apple should even give it an M3 chip. Barring drastic changes to how iPadOS works that turn iPads into practical laptop replacements for more varied and compute-intensive tasks, the OLED display rumored for the iPad Pro will be a bigger differentiator for most people the Apple silicon chip that does the job. .
Gurman also wrote that the new 12.9-inch Air will work with the same Magic Keyboard that's available today for the iPad Pro. If that's true, it would make sense if Apple offered upcoming iPad Air models iPad-like camera sets. Pro. After all, I doubt we've entered an alternate dimension where it wouldn't drive the company crazy to see a keyboard case with a large square camera hole in the Air's single, small round camera.
These are good moves for Apple, even if the updates don't completely fix the awkward iPad situation. Current iPads are too different from each other. Choosing based on power needs and hardware features is much easier if other features, such as screen size, are the same or at least close enough. But if you really want a big tablet and don't give a damn about high refresh rates or high-contrast displays, it's been annoying that only the iPad Pro offers it; the larger Air solves that. Now if only the company could rectify the iPad accessory situation.
