Will We See Another New iPad This Year?
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Apple surprised us this week by quietly pushing out a new seventh-generation iPad mini with a new A17 Pro chip for Apple Intelligence and support for its latest Apple Pencil Pro. While the specs of Apple’s new diminutive tablet weren’t all that surprising, the timing was.
Most sources believed Apple would announce the new iPad mini during an October event alongside its new M4-powered Mac lineup. While Apple still has time to schedule a Mac-focused event — last year’s whimsical Scary Fast event was announced on October 24 — there are also reasons to believe it may not bother.
We’ll have to wait and see what happens, but if Apple has an event in the works, it will almost certainly be all about the Mac. Getting the iPad mini out more quietly this week clears the stage to focus on the Mac, and by that same token, we can safely assume such an event wouldn’t be used to talk about a new 11th-generation iPad either.
That leaves the question of whether Apple plans to release a successor to its entry-level iPad this year. It could just as easily slip another iPad out via press release as it did with the iPad mini, and the timing seems to be right — the last four generations of iPad have been released in the fall.
However, those iPads were typically released alongside their respective iPhone models during Apple’s September events. Even the sixth-generation iPad mini debuted at the same event as the iPhone 13 lineup. The fifth-generation iPad mini was announced via press release in March 2019, a surprisingly quiet announcement for the comeback of Apple’s smallest tablet, which had gone nearly four years without an update.
It’s been even longer since Apple has released a standard iPad without an event. That was the fifth-generation iPad in March 2017. The sixth-generation iPad was unveiled in March 2018 at a special education-focused event in Chicago.
Nevertheless, it’s entirely possible that Apple could decide on a quieter release for the 11th-generation model of its entry-level tablet. However, we wouldn’t recommend holding our breath, as recent reports suggest we won’t see an update until early next year.
If Apple had another new iPad to announce, it would likely have done so alongside the new iPad mini. While Apple has spaced out press releases in the past, that’s often only done by entire product categories — announcing new iPads on a Tuesday and new Macs on a Wednesday, for example.
Instead of a new iPad, Apple removed the charger from the 10th-generation iPad box in Europe to align it with the new iPad mini (A17 Pro) and the rest of the iPad lineup, all of which omit the charger. The iPad got a commensurate price drop, but that’s solely in Europe and seems intended to compensate customers for the lack of a charger. It’s unlikely Apple would have bothered repackaging the 10th-generation iPad if it was on the cusp of replacing it with an 11th-generation model.
As with this week’s iPad mini, Apple’s new entry-level iPad is unlikely to include any significant updates beyond the silicon inside. The last model underwent a major redesign in 2022, adopting the edge-to-edge screen design and becoming the first iPad to switch the camera to the long edge for more effective use in landscape orientation. It was also the last iPad to switch to USB-C.
Regardless of when it arrives, the 11th-generation iPad will likely sport the same design, with the biggest improvement being a new chip inside. The current model uses the A14 Bionic from the iPhone 12 era, so it’s due for an upgrade, but how far Apple will go is open to debate.
With the company making such a massive push into Apple Intelligence, it seems unlikely that it will use an older A-series chip. Releasing a new device that doesn’t support Apple Intelligence would be unusual even now, much less in early 2025.
When a new list of iPad chip identifiers appeared in July, we believed they pointed to an M1 iPad since the same identifier used for the A14 Bionic also represents the M1 chip (as they both came out the same year). At the time, we felt the iPad mini seemed destined to get an A17 Pro chip (which it did), leaving the M1 for the standard iPad. While that may seem surprising for an entry-level iPad, it’s worth remembering that the M1 is now a four-year-old chip no longer used in any of Apple’s current Macs or iPads.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
