New iPad Air "coming soon," but don't expect too much

New iPad Air "coming soon," but don't expect too much

We are just a few days away from Apple's September event, which is expected to reveal the iPhone 15 and Apple Watch 9 in full.

But Mac and iPad updates won't be there; according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, these products will likely be announced on the web with limited fanfare in October, rather than at a full event.

The announcement was made during an appearance on the MacRumors podcast, rather than in the reporter's usual Power On newsletter.

"A new iPad Air (with minor specs improvements) is in development and will be coming soon," Garman said (29:40 in the video).

Minor spec upgrades are not unexpected. Garman previously wrote that next year's iPad Pro update will be the next big thing for Apple's tablet, and that until then we should not expect "anything but minor updates."

However, it is interesting that Garman singled out the iPad Air, which was just refreshed last year with the M1 chip. Many thought that if Apple was going to announce a new tablet soon, it would be the iPad mini 7.

Garman acknowledged that revealing the iPad as part of the iPhone 15 launch was not a "rash idea" given the company's recent history, but instead reiterated the idea that the iPad Air could appear with the new Mac a month later. There will be another announcement in October, he explained." However, he is "not convinced it will be an event" because he is not convinced that the company has enough to "draw people to Cupertino."

Instead, he suspects it will be something like the M2 Pro launch in January.

Garman has previously written that the Macs slated for a refresh are likely to be the 24-inch iMac and the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Air and Pros. However, on Friday, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggested that Apple may not release an M3-powered MacBook until next year.

Categories