A new iPad is expected to be launched in 2024. On November 5, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg announced that Apple plans to update the entire iPad lineup.
This is the first time Apple has skipped an iPad release
Since revealing the iPad in 2010, Apple has released new products every year. However, this year, there was no news. On October 17, they only revealed a budget-friendly Apple Pencil with a USB-C port.
The last iPad Pro was in January 2022, the iPad Air in March 2022, and the regular iPad in October 2022. The iPad Mini has been silent for two years since September 2021.
How will the iPad change?
The 7th generation iPad Mini is likely to be released next year. How will it be released? First, the chipset is expected to be upgraded to the A16 Bionic chip. Various changes are expected, such as a 10% performance improvement and 50% more GPU memory bandwidth than the A15 chip used in the previous work. There are also opinions that the new A17 Pro chip will be used. The A17 Pro was first installed in the iPhone 15 Pro model released last September.
The jelly scroll issue that appeared in the previous work is expected to be resolved. Jelly scroll is a phenomenon where one side refreshes slower than the other when the vertical screen is split in half. It looks like the screen is tilted or shaking because the refresh rate on both sides is different. It is expected in the industry that Apple will solve the problem by rotating the LCD assembly.
The regular iPad is also likely to be equipped with the A16 Bionic chip. Although the A17 Pro can be used, the possibility of using the A17 Pro chip is not very high, as it is a regular model.
The iPad Air is expected to apply the M2 chip. The M2 chip is currently only installed in the iPad Pro model. It offers up to 15% faster performance with an 8-core CPU and up to 35% faster graphics performance with a 10-core GPU than the previous M1 chip. It also has a neural engine that processes machine learning tasks even faster and a 50% larger bandwidth.
The iPad Pro can expect the latest M3 chip. The M3 chip is the latest 3-nano chipset revealed at the ‘Scary Fast’ fall event on October 31, and it consists of the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max.
According to the Geekbench 6 benchmark results released on November 1, the maximum clock speed of the M3 chip improved by 16% compared to the M2 chip. Single-core CPU performance improved by 17%, and multi-core performance improved by 21%. Foreign media evaluated it as a similar level of performance improvement from M1 to M2.
The application of the OLED display is also noteworthy. Speculation that an OLED panel will be used instead of the existing LCD has been ongoing since last January. OLED has the advantage of better contrast ratio and response speed compared to LCD.
Samsung Display and LG Display, Apple’s main display partners, are reportedly ramping up OLED panel production. Full-scale production is scheduled to start in February next year.
In addition, the AirPods, which also skipped the new product launch with the iPad this year, are expected to be released next year. The 4th generation AirPods are expected to be released in low-cost and regular models. The regular model supports ANC (Active Noise Canceling) and is known to help a better speaker unit.
Expected to be released in the first half of next year
The new iPad is expected to be released in the first half of 2024. Although iPads are often released in October, there is a high possibility of being released in the first half of next year due to a hiatus of more than a year.
Currently, the leader in the tablet market is the iPad. In a study by Canalys Research in January 2023, the iPad ranked first in tablet market share. The iPad has consistently held the top spot.
However, the tablet market is shrinking. According to a report released by IDC on November 3, global tablet shipments in the third quarter decreased by 14.2% compared to last year. In the unstable global economic market, consumers have mainly invested in smartphones and PCs necessary for daily life. It remains to be seen whether the new iPad will bring a rebound in the tablet market next year.
By. Kim Tae Woo
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