Even though it looks like the enhanced iPad Pro with a Mini-LED screen has been bumped to next year due to the impact of COVID-19, we have fresh rumors of another new Apple tablet coming in 2021. There have already been rumblings about a new iPad Air coming in late Summer or Fall, but according to Ming-Chi Quo, we should also expect a new iPad in the second half of this year. Well, maybe.
If you haven’t read Paris Martineau of Wired’s article iPads Are Crucial Health Care Tools in Combating Covid-19, then do yourself a favor and go take a look now. It’s a really insightful piece that shows the major impact that the iPad and other smart devices are having right now and in real-time across US hospitals and healthcare systems.
The iPad officially turned 10 years old yesterday! Hurray! A full decade has now passed and so much has changed with the hardware and software of the iPad and how I use them. It’s natural to look back after a milestone, so now is a good time to do just that. (You can see my previous strolls down memory lane here and here.)
9to5Mac has been a trusted source for Apple news for a long time. However, I didn’t really consider them to be quite on the level with Mark Gurman and Ming-Chi Kuo when it came to new device and iOS rumors. Gui Rambo has made quite an impact over the last couple of years revealing lots of information hidden inside of Apple’s various OS betas, but those details don’t start coming until after WWDC, when those of us with Apple Dev Accounts get our hands on the goodies.
I wrote about my first experience with the iPad back in January, right around the 10th anniversary of Steve Jobs announcing the device in 2010. As we close in on the 10th anniversary of the device’s release, I’ve been thinking a lot about where the iPad is today and the things I love about it, both new and old.
While I enjoyed using the original iPad and saw enormous potential in Apple’s tablet platform, it was the iPad 2 that really won me over. It was everything that was good about the iPad, just better all-around. It was thinner, lighter, faster and had better battery life. As big of a jump as we got from the original iPhone hardware to the iPhone 3G, this was even bigger. Add to that the fact that developers were fully onboard with making iPad-specific apps by this point thanks to the success of the first-gen device, and you had a really compelling package for the price.
Contrary to what you might think after reading that headline, I am not a hater. Not at all. I have actually been a fan of John Gruber’s writing and podcasting for several years and I typically agree with his point of view regarding Apple and the tech world, in general. However, I can’t say that’s the case when it comes to the iPad.
I wrote on the 10th anniversary of the iPad’s announcement a few days ago and I was far from the only one. Like mine, most of the articles that I read were largely positive and at least saw the potential for continued improvement, if not a bright future for Apple’s tablet platform.
Apple was projected to have a strong Holiday quarter and their own guidance predicted such, but today brought confirmation that they did even better than expected. They beat their projection of $85.5 billion to $89.5 billion by taking in $91.8 billion for Q1 of financial year 2020. Apple also beat the street’s estimate of $4.54 per share profit by posting $4.99 for the quarter.
I wrote a bit about the first decade of the iPad recently and I will continue talking about my own first decade with the platform soon, but today is officially THE day. Steve Jobs took the stage on January 27, 2010 to introduce the iPad to the world, and the rest is history.
We are coming up on a full decade since the announcement of the iPad soon. I already wrote about some of the notable impacts that Apple’s tablets have had on the tech world at large during the last 10 years. Now I am going to head down memory lane and take a look at how my iPads have impacted me and how I do things at work and home.
After summing up the iPad over the last decade yesterday, now it’s time to turn to the platform’s immediate future. So what can we expect as far as new hardware and improvements to iPadOS? Here are a few completely unscientific predictions with absolutely no sources for the new year ahead.