Apple’s “Let Loose” event is fast approaching, and we’ve known for quite some time it’ll focus on iPads thanks to reports from the likes of Mark Gurman of Bloomberg.
And in, Gurman’s latest Power On Newsletter, he’s laid out what he expects Apple’s tablet lineup to look like after the showcase on Tuesday.
Suggesting Apple should move to make the iPad more of a laptop replacement, Gurman says the iPad slate will offer the M4-wielding iPad Pro in both 11-inch and 12.9-inch versions and the iPad Air in the same screen sizes with the M2 inside.
The iPad Mini is also sticking to the sixth-generation version (although Apple hasn’t given up on that form factor yet), while the tenth-generation base model will still offer a 10.9-inch display. Perhaps the biggest surprise, however, is that the ninth-generation iPad may not be going anywhere – at least not yet.
A stay of execution?
It does seem a little surprising to have an Apple tablet from 2021, still using a Home Button, on the same store page as the iPad Pro and its rumored M4 chip – the first time an M-series Apple Silicon chip has appeared first in a tablet.
Still, Gurman doesn’t expect that juxtaposition to last too long, suggesting “by next year” that the ninth-gen iPad will be gone, “replaced by a cheaper 10.9-inch model” and that Apple will also revamp the iPad Mini with a faster chip.
Gurman suggests that it’ll clean up the lineup considerably, and it’s seemingly going to lead to a base iPad, an iPad Mini, and two sizes of Air and Pro.
