Update (Jan. 10): This is because one of Apple's supply partners has adapted its factory to produce 15-inch OLED displays.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman says Apple may be working on a larger iPad Pro. And he believes that Apple could have great success in the smart home display market, which is currently dominated by the Echo Show device and the Google Nest Hub.

Garman reported in June: "I'm told that Apple has engineers and designers and that a large iPad could be on store shelves as early as two or three years from now.

So what is the current story? Garman's Power On newsletter discusses the possibility of Apple becoming a strong competitor to new devices like the Echo Show 15. In our review of the Echo Show 15, we praised its wall-mounting capabilities and its large display with useful widgets and a Visual ID feature that shows personalized content for each member of the family.

However, the Echo Show 15 is not perfect, with mediocre audio and poor camera quality. Garman envisions a 15-inch iPad with a thinner design than the Echo Show 15 and more powerful speakers. Apple could also add a software layer called Home mode on top of the iPadOS to make it easier to control the best smart home devices and perform other tasks.

The new iPad with a larger screen will likely have other advantages over the Echo Show 15, such as a faster processor and more advanced camera. Also, if the device can be carried around, a 15-inch or larger iPad could replace a laptop.

Garman makes a couple of caveats here. One is price, with the iPad Pro 12.9-inch starting at $1,099. So the 15-inch version could be considerably more expensive; the second tradeoff is that Siri still falls short of Alexa and Google Assistant in terms of query understanding, speed, and overall capability.

Still, the thought of what Apple could do with a larger screen iPad is tantalizing, even if it doesn't appear next year. Until then, check out our best tablets list for what's worth buying now, and our Apple guide to 2022 for products we definitely expect to see.