The Information is reporting that Apple plans to release a 16-inch iPad Pro in the fourth quarter of 2023, in time for Christmas shoppers.
In our estimation, a 16-inch iPad Pro would probably be targeted specifically to creative professionals and would probably not be a mass-market product in the same way as other iPad models are. Think of it like the Mac Pro or Pro Display XDR—a specialized product for a narrow but important audience.
The target buyers might use the new 16-inch tablet with the Apple Pencil for a larger working canvas in apps like Procreate, Affinity Designer, Adobe Illustrator, and so on.
The report did not mention any special or additional features or pricing, which would likely be quite steep.
MacDailyNews Take: Starting at $1,499 (128GB) and topping out at $2,599 (2TB or more)? (The current 12.9-inch iPad Pro starts at $1,099 for 128GB up to $2,199 for 2TB storage.)
It’ll be like the display lid of a 16-inch MacBook Pro, so tons of room!
As for weight, the 11-inch iPad Pro weighs 1.04 pounds and the 12.9-inch weighs 1.51 pounds, so we expect it would weigh around 2 pounds or slightly more as there’s lots of heavy glass required to span a 16-inch multi-touch display. For reference, the 14-inch MacBook Pro – with all of that aluminum and keyboard – weighs 3.5 pounds and the 16-inch MacBook Pro is a beast at 4.8 pounds.
MacDailyNews Take: Beloved, cherished interns, do it. Do it now! TGIF! Prost, everyone! 🍻🍻🍻
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It would be hard to use like an iPad, held in hands while using. It would be an iPad meant to be placed on a table (or other support) during use. As such, it may not look like a scaled up current iPad Pro, just as iPhone and iPad are similar but different.
I disagree. It would be a complete, 100% replacement for all the physical, paper tablets people use.
Think of doctors and nurses in hospitals. They now, often, use a smaller tablet or a computer terminal in the patients’ rooms. Now give those individuals a tablet that can utilize handwriting, connect to the hospital’s private network, cover the same area as full sized document (whether U.S. or European sizes), and allow these medical professionals to work anywhere. No more charts to carry around or find. Any tablet to which they have authorized access will work. All medical professionals would have direct, immediate access to patient information in a convenient, mobile format that is not cramped into a screen size that does not show full, historical documentation all at one time.
If I had access access to a 16″ iPad back in the early 80s when I went back to graduate school in physics I could have entered all those long equations as notes in those classes. The greater screen area would have been very welcome. It would have been a great game changer for me. It could have held textbooks and shown them at full size (some physics texts back then were full size, about 8 1/2 x 11 inch pages). Yes, it would have been large, but it would have been better than even today (if I were in graduate school today) of carrying around a 15″ MacBook Pro.
There are many, many other scenarios that we could outline, but a full range of iPads, including this “full size” iPad will really start the move to a paperless work world. I remember people predicting this happening “any year now” since the mid 80s (and maybe before). It might really start to happen with a full range of iPads.
Why? Buy a 16” MacBook Pro laptop, you have it all. Drawing onscreen with an Apple Pencil, one or both will eventually wear out and get old, Many other input devices are more precise and will never trade them for a fashionable kid cool tech, but that’s me…
That’s just wrong. First, to my knowledge no MacBook variant can utilize the Pencil nor are any of them touch screen. Second, ALL technology eventually gets replaced with better technology. Today virtually no one uses horse drawn carriages, and those that do actually do so by choice. Virtually no one drives a Model-T automobile, and those that do almost exclusively do so for antique car shows and such. Today no one by choice uses a VAX mini computer.
From everything I’ve read the iPad/Pencil combination works well for several years. The failure rate even for the first generation of each seems to be very small. It’s just like Macs. Macs have a much, much longer usage timeline than the typical, non Apple PC.
What “other input devices are more precise”? Are you thinking of desktop Wacom tablets and the like that are NOT portable and use a precise pointing “puck”? I’ve used them extensively. They are great, but I would never have been able to use them like I would have been able to use a 16″ iPad in classes, libraries, cafeterias, labs, etc.
From what I’ve read the iPad/Pencil combination is not perfect, but does seem to be the best combination out there by far, by very far.
The best input combination “by far, by very far” is a mouse/trackpad and a keyboard. You apparently haven’t even used an iPad/pencil, so what are you even blathering about? The “game changer” back in the 50s or whenever you were on the verge of becoming the next Einstein would have been a simple laptop.
Not wrong, you have a reading comprehension problem. Example: “First, to my knowledge no MacBook variant can utilize the Pencil nor are any of them touch screen.”
Nowhere in my post do I write a pencil can be used on a “MacBook variant.” Nowhere?!
What I did say: “Many other input devices are more precise and will never trade them for a fashionable kid cool tech.” That would be Apple Pencil cool kid tech. By very far, more precise input devices EXIST include mice, tablets, keyboards with shortcuts and scripts.
You wrote: “From what I’ve read the iPad/Pencil combination is not perfect, but does seem to be the best combination out there by far, by very far.”
See that’s another problem other than reading misinterpretation. No EXPERIENCE with all the devices mentioned and lack of critical thinking skills, you believe it and parrot your beliefs.
Unfortunately, REALITY does not work that way and I can tell you from experiences with all the input devices mentioned on intensive projects, using an Apple Pencil is akin to using an iPad for serious high end professional computer work…
I’ve been using an iPad Pro while my MacBook Pro has been under repair.
Yes, the iPP is OK for a lot of things, but creative work (such as page layout design) is hugely quicker and easier with the MBP. Helps too that it runs a nice big 27 inch screen as well.
Wait… I didn’t say it wouldn’t or shouldn’t happen. I said it may not be a simple scale-up of current iPad design. Because it’s significantly larger and heavier, it may be ergonomically different.
For example, before Apple Watch, a “smart” watch was simple with limited connectivity and built-in functions (like a Casio) OR it was designed like a mini-smartphone, an example of scaling down a successful product. But instead of creating a miniature iPhone with wristband, Apple Watch’s design and interface are different and optimized for its size and wrist placement.
And iPhone… Previous smartphones were mostly scaled down personal computers, complete with tiny physical keyboard and mouse-equivalent like a stylus. The screen had drop-down menus. Another example of scaling a successful product. But instead creating a tiny Mac, Apple designed a completely new touch-based interface. We can even go back to Macintosh, when existing personal computers (including Apple II) used a command-line interface like old mainframe computer terminals. Reuse what worked before. Apple came up with something different and much better.
A “behemoth” iPad may be different, not just a scaled-up version of current iPads.
This was meant to be reply to Shadowself comment above.
You may be correct that the interface will be tweaked for a the larger screen real estate. If Apple were to do that (actually optimize an interface for a larger screen) that still does not imply that it would become a desk top device or a device that needs some other support.
Yes, it will be heavier than any current iPad, but in my opinion any iPad that stays at or below the 0.9 kg mass break point should still be an easily usable, portable device.
Serious doubt the weight and size will make for an “easily usable, portable device.” iPad’s perennial problem is some folks trying to make it into something it is not.
Apologies to Dirty Harry, a DEVICE has got to know its limitations…
Bingo, my 11” Pro is too heavy for lengthy tablet use, the 12.9” that I returned earlier was a chore to hold for long, even with two hands (but too limited because of iPad OS and too heavy with the Magic Keyboard, as a laptop).
Sounds interesting!
Why? Apple: as many of us have said for years, the iPad is never going to be a Mac. The iPad is an appliance with occasional pro uses, and those are supplemental, I don’t care what Adobe ports.
The latest Mac offerings are outstanding; let go of the ‘post PC’ nonsense and create iPads that fit the bill. and price them accordingly. My old iPad finally died and I replaced it with a Kindle Fire for $99, because I do absolutely nothing serious on the iPad – that is reserved for my better hardware. Call the iPad what it is: a larger than a phone consumption device. I don’t know that Steve ever envisioned anything else, frankly, as at the time he was competing with the original Kindle and (LOL) ‘Slate’.
I also don’t know who first coined the phrase ‘post PC’, but they were an idiot, championed only perhaps by the idiots that listened to them and based entire product lines on the premise. MacOS or Windows or Linux – a tablet isn’t going to hack it beyond a certain point. Many of us thought this from the beginning and bought accordingly. This was always preposterous. The joke is on whomever it was at Apple that thought otherwise, and invested millions of dollars in its investment.
Cant wait… Will buy one right off the bat!
right on Apple!:)
Well, I’m definitely part of the target audience. I really only use my iPad to watch TV. And a bigger TV screen is usually better 🙂
Weight doesn’t matter to me because it sits on my lap or an airline table while being watched. iPad is much better for this purpose than a MBP.
Of course, for real work, the MBP wins, hands down, every time.
Why can’t Apple make an iPad plus? A nice big screen but with lower iPad gen 10 specs.
I’ve been dying to get an iPad Pro 12.9 inch for years now but I just can’t bring myself to spend 1700 bucks CAD on it. It’s ridiculous. Even the refurbished 3rd gen is tempting for 699 but it’s 4 years old now. Does it make sense to buy a 3rd gen 2018 iPad Pro in 2022 for a good price ? It has full 1yr Apple warranty. I’ve always been wary of refurbs. Advice appreciated.
Because one company, even Apple, can’t do it all. A major downside of a closed ecosystem from a macro pov.
If you consider it a good price then go for it, the differences between the 2018 and 2022 IPPs is not substantial for most users. Personally I’d look for a 2020 model to get the 6GB of ram. At this moment the software is almost exactly the same for all IPPs in recent years, external display support is coming later and if it’s as underwhelming as Stage Manager on the iPad screen you won’t be missing out.