I’ve owned an iPad Pro since the spring of 2016, when I picked one up used just a few months after the 12.9″ first gen device was released. It was that extra size and the brand new at the time Apple Pencil that pulled me in, but it was the additional versatility and utility of the device that kept me interested over time.
Macotakara (via MacRumors) is on a bit of a roll this week. I wrote about their reports on the iPad Pro a couple of days ago, but now we have a fresh article on what they are expecting from the new iPad Mini.
Information from the supply chain is starting to flow as we get closer to new Apple devices going into production. There was a bit more today from a couple of usual suspects covering a couple of different iPads and the Mac.
One year ago today, I made a predictions post for what I expected from Apple for the iPad in 2020. Whether you have sources or not (and I definitely have none), you should be willing to keep score if you are going to step out and make them. With that in mind, here’s a look back at how I fared with those predictions.
I don’t usually post deals from Amazon, but this one is pretty sold by Apple product standards. If you are looking for a last minute Christmas gift for an iPad Pro user, or maybe a stocking stuffer for yourself, this is a pretty good deal for late in the game.
iPad Pro rumors have been like a tennis match the last couple of years- back and forth and all over the place. There were rumors one would come late last year. That obviously didn’t happen, but we did get a slight refresh in the Spring. Very slight, but that’s ok. As early as last year, we also started hearing rumors of Mini-LED displays and 5G coming to the Pro line.
Courtesy of a couple of reports from Ming-Chi Kuo, the iPad Pro has re-joined the Apple rumor carousel. It seems that the company and it’s manufacturing partners are having some success getting Mini-LED ready for prime time, and the iPad Pro may be the first device to benefit from that. Well, sort of.
I’ve seen where a lot of tech bloggers and Apple fans are talking about the irrelevance of the iPad Pro in the wake of Apple’s hardware announcement earlier this week. I get it, so much so that I’m buying a new iPad Air, myself. It has most of what the typical users would like from an iPad Pro at a much more reasonable starting price of $599. I think it strikes a great balance between performance and affordability and it’s also compatible with all the same accessories as the 11″ iPad Pro.
However, while it is true that the iPad Air is now encroaching on the territory of its higher-end sibling, I’m not ready to write off the Pro quite yet. Here are a few reasons why.
Two and a half years ago, I wrote an article asking a simple question. If Apple were to create an iPad hybrid in the body of a MacBook, would you buy it? There were patents and speculation at the time that made it reasonable to consider such a question. That, and the iPad Pro was beginning to push the boundaries of what we expect from an Apple tablet.
Things have certainly changed today and such a device doesn’t seem nearly as far away. Over the last two years we have gotten a new iPad Pro design, a new Apple Pencil, iPadOS, USB-C and full touchpad support. We even have a Magic Keyboard with built-in touchpad that can virtually transform an iPad Pro into something very, very close to a laptop. However, I still think the question of an iPadOS device in the shell of a MacBook is relevant, at least enough to speculate over.
Tim Chaten from the iPad Pros podcast recently reached out and invited me to be interviewed in an upcoming episode. We met on Twitter recently discussing Apple’s new Magic Keyboard and from there started talking about how we both use the iPad Pro, especially for work. I definitely appreciate his point of view and his podcast’s focus on how much you accomplish with Apple’s tablets.
I just want to say a big thank you to him for the invitation. Mr Chaten is a very good host and interviewer and it was a lot of fun being on the show.
While shipments of all tablets, including Apple’s iPads, were down over the first quarter of 2020, Digitimes Research is predicting a big rebound coming up. We should know more about the last three months after Apple announces its earnings later today, but what’s coming up sounds pretty exciting for iPad users and fans.