I don’t envy Tim Cook right now. His Chinese supply chain, the one-time envy off the tech world and backbone of Apple’s amazing growth over the last 15 years, is still moving slowly as SE Asia recovers from COVID-19’s initial round of effects. However, even as things gradually return to some kind of normalcy on the other side of the world, the pace of production will be slowed for months to come. Now Apple also has the potential impact of this new threat here at home to deal with, as well.
Apple usually gives us some hints as to what’s coming on their event invites, pointing the way to what’s right around the corner. Sometimes they are very subtle hints that spark interesting theories and discussion. This time around, not so much.
As we close in on the month of March, which seems almost certain to hold the promise of an Apple Event, the rumors of new iPads continue to abound. However, in the last week or so, they seem to have taken a turn. While there is growing certainty that there will be an event in March, whether we will actually get iPad hardware that soon is now being called into question.
As we close the book on January, the rumors of a March Apple event centered on the iPad are coming fast and furious now. There are multiple reports of a new iPad Pro in a different size, an Apple Pencil refresh, and potentially some other Apple device updates, as well. With the iPad line progressively trending away from the Air and Mini and toward the Pro line over the last year, this next event should give us some clarification as Apple’s intentions for the tablet category going forward. This will be especially interesting given the continuing declines in year over year sales and profits for the iPad line that we recently learned about during Apple’s quarterly sales call.