For awhile now, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg has claimed that the next batch of tablets, including a larger iPad Air and the OLED iPad Pros, would be announced either late March or within April. In a recent report, Gurman says that these Apple tablets are getting pushed back by a month, and are now expected in early May instead.
Citing unnamed sources, the report points to two reasons for the delay. The first is on the software end, “but the company has been working to finish software for the devices”. Then there’s the hardware side of things, as the report notes that “the screens in the latest models also require complex new manufacturing techniques”. This likely applies more to the OLED versions of the iPad Pro, rather than the new 12.9-inch variant of the iPad Air.
These new tablet models launching in early May though puts them just a month ahead of Apple’s WWDC event for the year. The iPadOS 18 is also expectged to make an appearance here, with some rumoured generative AI emphasis. With all that in mind, chances are the new tablets won’t be immediately available after their launching, and may instead appear on shelves once the new operating systems roll out.
Of course, nothing is set in stone yet, so these rumours be should taken with the usual pinch of salt. In fact, with their rumoured release windows being pushed back so frequently, it may make more sense to expect it to be pushed back by another month, allowing both the new iPad software and hardware to be revealed simultaneously.
(Source: Bloomberg)
