Tuesday at 10:00 Eastern Time (Tuesday at 22:00 Beijing Time),Apple will hold a “Let's Fly” special event, where it is expected to launch its latest tablet product line, including the new iPad Pro and iPad Air.
This will also be Apple's first major release of a tablet series product since October 2022. The current 35-minute event has aroused great interest among technology enthusiasts and “Apple fans”.
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According to Apple's second-quarter financial report released last week, its iPad business revenue continued to decline in the last quarter, falling to $5.56 billion, lower than analysts' average estimate of $5.91 billion. This is mainly because for the first time in the product's history, Apple has not upgraded the iPad's hardware for a full year.
While specific details about each new product's enhancements have not yet been fully revealed, leaks from industry insiders on platforms such as AppleSphere indicate that the event will showcase new iPad Pro and iPad Air.
Many people in the industry predict thatApple is expected to chart a new path for its iPad lineup this week while resolving a confusing clutter of multiple product lines.
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In addition to new iPad products, Apple is expected to launch a new Apple Pencil equipped with tactile feedback, as well as a new Magic Keyboard. The launch of these new accessories is designed to make the iPad closer to the laptop experience.
The following is the expected Apple product update that will involve the entire iPad ecosystem, including:
Released iPad Pro equipped with M3 chip (rumored to be M4 chip), using OLED screen for the first time;
The iPad Air equipped with the M2 chip is released and is expected to appear in two different sizes for the first time;
Released third-generation Apple Pencil;
Released the new Magic Keyboard.
The entry-level iPad and new iPad mini are not expected to be released at the event.
The new iPad Pro is expected to usher in multiple major updates
The new iPad Pro is undoubtedly the most exciting new product expected to be released. According to previous reports from industry insiders, the new iPad Pro will still be available in 11-inch and 12.9-inch versions, but this time the iPad Pro will receive its biggest update in appearance since 2018.
A CAD drawing circulated in February this year showed that the corners of the new iPad Pro will be more rounded and the body will be thinner and lighter.
It is expected that the bezels around the screen will be narrower, and the position of the front camera of the new tablet will also change:From the previous generation's vertical front-facing to horizontal front-facing.
also,Both sizes of iPad Pro displays are expected to use OLED screens this time, which will be the first time in history.
The newly upgraded OLED display will use self-luminous technology, have a higher contrast ratio than mini-LED, and can significantly save energy consumption.
Supply chain expert Ross Young said this will be the best OLED panel in history.
The previous generation iPad Pro 11-inch uses an LCD display, supports P3 wide color gamut, and has a maximum brightness of 600 nits; while the 12.9-inch iPad Pro uses a mini-LED display, supports P3 color gamut, and has a maximum brightness of 1,600 nits. special.
At the same time, the chip equipped with the new iPad Pro is undoubtedly the biggest suspense in the industry.
Although the industry had generally expected that the new iPad Pro would be equipped with the M3 chip, as expected, according to the latest news from Bloomberg industry reporter Mark Gurman at the end of last month, the new iPad Pro may also skip the M3 chip and directly use Apple's new M4 chip.
This would represent a major leap in performance for the device and make it the most powerful iPad in Apple's history.
What changes are there in the new iPad Air?
Apple has never launched new iPad Pro and iPad Air models at the same time before, so Tuesday could be a very important day for that reason alone.
It is reported that the new iPad Air is expected to appear in two sizes for the first time – in addition to the current traditional 10.9-inch model, it seems that an iPad Air with a 12.9-inch display will also be launched.
In one sense, the change makes sense: the latest MacBook Air with a larger display has been a huge success. But at the same time, for Apple, this does mean that if the Air and Pro have similar-sized product matrices, Apple will need to clearly differentiate their configurations and functions.
In addition to price, the generation difference of chips is perhaps the most obvious point of differentiation.The new iPad Air is expected to be equipped with an M2 chip, which is still far behind the new iPad Pro, which may be equipped with an M3 or even M4 chip.
Another point of differentiation may fall on the screen – OLED screens are not expected to appear on the Air. An industry report previously stated that the new larger Air will use the miniLED display stock of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro that has not yet been cleared, but industry insiders quickly refuted this statement on the grounds that this would make the Air Prices have increased significantly.
Will Apple focus on AI?
According to previous interviews with Cook, Apple will announce “major plans” from an “artificial intelligence perspective” at this week's iPad launch and at its annual developer conference in June.
Although more important artificial intelligence innovations are not expected to be announced until the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, it is obvious that a major focus of Tuesday's iPad launch will still fall on whether it will have AI functions – —Especially if the new iPad Pro is equipped with an M4 chip, will it be upgraded to the first iPad with AI functions?
In January this year, Microsoft once replaced Apple as the world's most valuable company. Investors believed that Apple was lagging behind in the artificial intelligence competition among Wall Street technology giants, which directly caused Apple's stock price to come under pressure during the year.
But even so, many people still have high expectations for Apple's AI strategy, and are very eagerly paying attention to any signal from Apple towards AI.
According to speculation by many industry insiders, Apple may currently be focusing on deploying AIGC on its smart devices, which will be a breakthrough that allows artificial intelligence chatbots and applications to run on the hardware and software of the phones and tablets themselves, instead of Computing power is provided by the cloud in the data center.
After launching the iPad in 2010, Jobs declared that “personal computers will be like trucks” and that the iPad is the future of computing. In other words, people will be able to use tablets for most of their needs (like a car in this case) and only pull out their laptops or desktops when performing heavy tasks. A year later, when the iPad 2 came out, Jobs further emphasized this point, saying that Apple was now firmly in the post-PC era.
To some extent, Jobs was right, but it was clearly not the iPad that ultimately succeeded—millions of people now use smartphones such as iPhones as their primary computers. Smartphones have become incredibly capable, with larger screens turning them into small tablets with performance comparable to computers. For many people, a mobile phone is enough.
But when it comes to turning the iPad into a computer replacement, Apple has lost its way. The device still lacks the multitasking capabilities of a laptop, and its advantages over regular smartphones aren't clear.
Mark Gurman says it may be time for Apple to make its stance clear in a “showdown” – does it want the iPad to be a half-baked replacement for laptops, or a true computing replacement? Consumers don't understand why they should buy an iPad instead of a Mac, or vice versa.
Gurman pointed out that from a business perspective, people have been worried that the iPad will be too powerful and will cannibalize Mac sales. so what? These two types of products are not that popular now. Apple just needs to make the best iPad it can, and also make the best Mac – the days of Apple deliberately suppressing the iPad have to end!