Ipad Pro 2 in 2016!!!! wont upgrade to the Ipad Pro 1 this year!! Ipad refresh is always better
Yeah I bought an Air 2 at launch so I think I'm gonna sit out the Pro 1 unless it's extremely compellingwhich I doubt! The main thing is having pro-quality software. That is lacking from not only Apple but even bigger companies like Adobe who make toy apps (maybe Lightroom being an outlier but still needs full RAW import, etc) and are stopping support of some of their apps like Photoshop Touch.
As for the OP's question, yeah I don't see much they can do with the iPad Air 3, which has me worried that they will put artificial software limits on split-screen multitasking and stuff like that in iOS 9 so that it's iPad Air 3 only. The 2GB of RAM in the iPad Air 2 is plenty for most people for the next couple years in a tablet. The tri-core processor hardly ever gets taxed to the limit. It's also so thin that I don't know if they could put a headphone adapter or buttons on the next version if it's any thinner. Sure there might be a radical redesign coming up in a few years but I doubt that it will come next year.
Here is what I think they
could do
- Quad-core A9X (more likely in the Pro, however)
- Force Touch
- Improved Touch ID as the 6S is rumored to get
- Upgraded FaceTime camera to 1080p
- Improved camera used in the iPhone 6 with 240fps slow-mo
- Improved battery life, especially if they don't increase the cores/speed as mentioned above
- Better speakers, maybe ones that don't vibrate as much
- 32/64/128/256GB sizes
I think for many people that list isn't very compelling. I think ForceTouch could be cool and a new way to do advanced gestures and potentially be more productive. I think that will be a central focus of the keynote if they can get it to scale up to the size of the iPad properly. If they put in full-blown pressure sensitivity for things like drawing then I'd be quite interestedbut they will probably save that for the Pro. As for the rest
who cares? You don't need a beastly processor in an iPad. Maybe a better video chip for gaming
but then again iOS games designed for least common denominator and Apple limits the size to 4GB (only recently increased from 2GB). Better cameras? My iPad Air 2 has a much better camera than my last iPad and I still don't think I've ever actually used it to take a picture aside from the first day I got it. That's what iPhones are for. I suppose if you don't have a smartphone it could be useful but most people do. Improved battery life would be welcome but I rarely run out as it is. You have to use your iPad for a long time away from a charger before hitting that limitation. But again, it's welcome. Better speakers would be welcome but it's a minor gripe and not worth upgrading for. Lastly starting at 32GB could entice some people with older devices, and maxing out at 256GB could pull over a few early upgraders, but I doubt many.
So yeah, I just don't see the next iPad update being very compelling unless Apple has some super secret stuff up their sleeve. Force Touch could be cool but I can wait.
Oh and I don't agree with the OP saying that the jump from the iPad 3 to the iPad 4 was significant. The iPad 3 was way underpowered for that retina display and it showed. It was essentially an iPad 2 under the hood. The iPad 4 was a solid upgrade and made it a much smoother experience. My mom has one that is still going strong and has no inclination to upgrade. The nice thing about it was that it was before 64-bit chips so you get access to the full 1GB of RAM. The A7 was 64-bit which uses 20-30% more memory than a 32-bit chip. The 5-10% performance gain you get from using 64-bit isn't worth the hit you take from laggy apps and crashes from having effectively less RAM. Some of my favorite chips are the A6 and A8X. The A7 in my old Mini 2 and the A8 in my iPhone 6 Plus are laggy bastards without enough RAM. I honestly miss my iPhone 5 and I'm looking forward to the A9 in the 6S which should have enough RAM. The A8X is a dream too. Just the other day I was amazed because I had used my Air 2 all day long at work with Duet which makes an external display for my iMac, used it to check email and take notes in a meeting and reply to some iMessages, then when I got home I was browsing the app store and installed some updates, checked my order status in the Apple Store app and watched a YouTube video someone sent me. Went back to Safari and it still had the page loaded I was last looking at THE DAY BEFORE opened in the tab with it scrolled to where I had last left off. No reloading or anything. Now sometimes it does reload over time, or if you open more than 12-15 tabs, but nothing like my 6 Plus that can't even check email or iMessages without reloading my Safari tab and losing anything I type into a form, such as MacRumors or wherever.
