It’s seemed like a slow year for Apple announcements, with no spring events and only minor updates to the iPhone, Apple Watch, and Mac lines. (In part, this is due to the diversion of development resources toward the impending Vision Pro project.) But for a long-running and important product category, there hasn’t been any announcement, and it looks like that won’t change before the end. of 2023.
In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg leaker Mark Gurman casually mentions that no iPad will be released in the remainder of 2023.
“Apple hasn’t released a new iPad all year, the first time that’s happened since Steve Jobs launched the product in 2010,” he writes. “Apple could have tried to launch more new products, but the refreshed iPads… aren’t ready yet. The company plans to update its entire iPad line during 2024.”
As Gurman points out, the iPad range, which was down 10 percent in the company’s most recent financial report in a sign of its continued struggle to excite customers, has seen at least one new model added in every calendar year since. which was presented for the first time. years ago.
- 2010: iPad
- 2011: iPad 2
- 2012: iPad 3, iPad mini 1, iPad 4
- 2013: iPad Air 1, iPad mini 2
- 2014: iPad mini 3, iPad Air 2
- 2015: iPad mini 4, iPad Pro 1 (12.9 inches)
- 2016: iPad Pro 1 (9.7 inches)
- 2017: iPad 5, iPad Pro 2 (both sizes)
- 2018: iPad 6, iPad Pro 3
- 2019: iPad mini 5, iPad Air 3, iPad 7
- 2020: iPad Pro 4, iPad 8, iPad Air 4
- 2021: iPad Pro 5, iPad 9, iPad mini 6
- 2022: iPad Air 5, iPad Pro 6, iPad 10
- 2023: Nothing?
On that basis, it seems like a surprise that 2023 will come to a close without a single iPad announcement. But this isn’t the first time we’ve heard that there won’t be any new iPads this year. And in any case, it’s worth emphasizing that most iPads aren’t updated annually like iPhones are. Apple tablet updates are much more random.
The Pro and Air models tend to come out once every 18 months or so, and on that timeline, the next iPad Pros won’t arrive until spring 2024. The sixth-generation iPad Air is delayed, but not by much, and that model had a long hiatus between 2014 and 2019 and it could be entering another one… or it could just be delayed a bit. The iPad mini has not been updated for more than two years and could be on a hiatus of its own, or could even have been discontinued.
The strangest absence is the 11th generation iPad, as Apple’s cheapest iPad is the closest among its tablets to a regular annual update. But here too there are precedents: there were 18 months between the sixth and seventh models.
In other words, this isn’t exactly cause for alarm. As mentioned above, the Vision Pro is causing some slowdown in other areas, and 2022 was a relatively busy year for iPad launches. In that context, it would only take a few minor delays to leave 2023 completely iPad-free, and we expect Apple to make up the shortfall in early 2024.
And we should also have new AirPods next year. Gurman says the “new low-end AirPods” will launch in 2024.
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