“Apple will apparently release an updated iPad Air in 2014,” Richard Goodwin reports for Know Your Mobile. “The rebooted version of the 2013’s hugely popular 9.7in slate is tipped to feature the company’s upcoming A8 system on a chip and TouchID among other things. ”
“According to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo the iPad Air 2 will launch towards the end of 2014,” Goodwin reports. “Kuo also claims that Apple will not be releasing an updated iPad Mini with retina in 2014 nor a larger, iPad Pro model – the latter is apparently coming in 2015. Kuo also predicted correctly that Apple would release a cut-rate iPad 4 in Q1 2014. ”
Goodwin reports, “‘Compared with lower-margin iPad mini with Retina display, which shipments has been tepid, higher-margin iPad Air was a hot selling item in 4Q13, which will slow Apple in developing new iPad mini models. We believe Apple plans to launch upgraded iPad Air early this year, and will accelerate development of 12.9in iPad. As such, more resources will be allocated to these two products, which will affect the progress of the development of new iPad mini. All told, we think chances of the debut of a new iPad mini in 2H14 are slim. In addition, the 12.9-inch iPad is unlikely to be offered in 2014. For these reasons, we predict the only new iPad product in 2H14 will be the upgraded iPad Air,’ wrote the analyst in a note to investors.”
Read more in the full article here.
a 13 inch jumbo pad will be released …like never. Here’s the logic, take everything great about a fun mobile handheld device, ..and remove it.
This will be for enterprise mostly. Think about all of the iPads that are used for cash registers and that are mounted on pedestals. Much easier to use a 13″ screen compared to 10″.
Apple has been steadily filing patents on very interesting stylus technology over the last few years. A 13″ jumbo pad might be nice for drafting, art, hand writing etc. The 9.7″ is a bit small for those things.
A lot of people wanted the Mini before it was released, but the market hasn’t been begging for something bigger. So if Apple does release something bigger, it will be it will be to deliver a new capabilities that the current iPad is not well suited for.
I wouldn’t mind being able to quickly and accurately handwrite, draw and paint on a 13″ iPad while sitting on the couch. Maybe a stylus would make editing complex documents faster and easier too – taking another bite out of the PC market.
Well, who knows what Apple will do … I don’t.
I get the drawing aspect of it, but wouldn’t a company like Wacom be better suited to take on this niche market? Wouldn’t such a device be better suited as a OSX accessory?
Disagree, I want one and so do many posters here. I think a poll done a while ago on this site backs me up. I believe is an eventual certainty. What if weighs less than earlier iPads ? I use my iPad most often sitting on stand on a table. I find 9.7 small at times.
iPad mini retina tepid shipments? First I heard, perhaps Goodwin doesn’t know mobile.
The regular iPad mini sales are hot, the iPad mini retina is priced just a little too high, compared to its competitors and the iPad mini is selling super well. The retina upgrade on a mini isn’t near as compelling as it was on a full-size iPad.
The iPad v4 for $399 will only exacerbate this issue.
I’d love to see some improvements in the screen technology, myself. People look down at OLED because it’s less accurate, but it sure it nice to have black pixels on the screen not have light emitting from them. Whatever happened the the IGZO screen?
If the iPad mini sales are indeed tepid which is odd considering that not long ago they were claiming Apple was concerned that lower margin minis were forming too great a percentage of iPad sales for Apples liking, then what on Earth would suggest that iPad ‘maxi’ would sell well at this stage? I think the concept is worth exploring but its hardly in the short term going to be a big seller i would say, i think iOS needs to be much more of a laptop/desktop replacement before that is likely and the OS is still well short of that in its capabilities for most people beyond casual users.
What do you call a 6 inch iPod touch with retina and cellular?
A 5.5 to 6 inch tablet with full cellular capabilities will be called the iPad nano. It will feature a 1024 X 767 display and an A7 processor.
I don’t think they’d go that small for an iPad model… They could however release an iPod that size.
The difference being ? The name !
That, of course, is 768. The iPad nano is why there will be no mini update this year.
Gonna have to disagree… iOS 8 will offer Touch ID support for 3rd party developers and Apple is going to want to start adding Touch ID to most of its line-up. So the mini will probably be updated.
And instead of releasing a separate “Pro” model, the Air will be billed as the model for “professionals”. It will use an enhanced version of the A8, the A8X, which will have 4 CPU cores making it extremely powerful and will pretty much demonstrate what the future of the Post-PC era will be capable of.
It’s been established:
“Early This Year” is the new Apple meme.
How is “towards the end of 2014” at all considered “early this year”? Am I missing something?
It was an analyst quoting another analyst then stating his own belief.
One analyst said end of the year, and the other said 2H14 which isn’t end but not early either.
What kind of analyzing is this?
It’s already “early” this year and Timber is late as usual.
Helllllllp! I remember MDN had a link to a DOUBLE SCREEN iPad/Mac.
It looked like the clamshell iBook.
Does ANYONE know where that is ?
I looked on Microsoft’s website, to look at MS Office.
this is a great example of what “could be great”, on a DOUBLE screen device.
In FCP X, the bottom part could be a control panel. Many possibilities.