Don't fool yourself, Apple doesn't care about customers feeling pressured to buy or not, they only care about numbers and investors. If Apple doesn't release every 12 months a new Mac/iPad it's because TSMC doesn't release a new node yearly so they can't justify a new product with the same SoC and node as the previous one. The proof is that they literally released a new Mac every time Intel had a new CPU, even if it was just 5% faster. Another proof of "thinking about customer" is bs is that they make a new OS every year (only adding a few gimmicks like widgets) even if there's no new Mac, when no one really needs it as we just need a stable OS that could be released every 4 years and include new features yearly in small updates. But guess what? The former makes older Macs/iPads obsolete faster than the latter by stopping support sooner.
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Apple Rumored to Announce New iPads This Week, But Gurman Says Release 'Won't Happen This Month'
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If it were that simple, we'd have an M2 iMac.
This isn't true at all. Lots of Intel Macs sat on older CPUs for a while.
Er. The OS upgrade is free.
Their upgrade cycle has nothing to do with economics and everything to do with engineering and marketing convenience: it lets them announce a roadmap for the next 12 months for both developers and users, and it lets them internally keep all platforms in sync.
But… it doesn't? If they don't make a release, the old Mac doesn't get an upgrade. And if they do make one and it obsoletes the old Mac, it… doesn't get an upgrade.
Having said all that, you're still right: they're not delaying iPads because of tight consumer budgets or anything.
Sometimes he’s a little right and sometimes he’s a little wrong. Heck people, even with the past releases over the years I can even guess that it might come this month or next month and I’m not gonna get paid either. So, in my humble unpaid opinion, the new devices will come out at some point. Now that’s a safe bet.
I think it could be so great once it gets an OLED display. I have an 11” iPad Pro and its regular old non-mini-LED IPS display just can’t compete with either the mini-LED MacBook or OLED iPhone displays. For a product that’s basically just a big screen, I really wish the iPad could catch up already in terms of display technologies.
Wow what a big target not to be wrong against!
If Apple shipped any new products they almost would all have to offer hardware accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading support, yeah even iPads. Started with A17 Pro, likely also M3 SoC family devices.
To those whining about the Mini 6 needing an M1 Chip
Apple isn’t going to give it a chip despite it having the same single core yet more powerful multi core performance than A15 but from the same architecture than the A14. Think people, there’s a reason why Air 5 got M1… because Air 4 has the A14 easy choice
Not to mention there are things that make the A15 better than M1 like ANE, battery life, video decoders etc etc etc
Apple isn’t going to give it a chip despite it having the same single core yet more powerful multi core performance than A15 but from the same architecture than the A14. Think people, there’s a reason why Air 5 got M1… because Air 4 has the A14 easy choice
Not to mention there are things that make the A15 better than M1 like ANE, battery life, video decoders etc etc etc
That kind of change requires extensive r&d and will happen no earlier than post iPads Pro jumping to a new design and M3 (so not in 2023).
This is just going to be a jump to M2 for the Air, and A16 for iPad mini. Plus the usual minor updates to some wireless radios, with Bluetooth 5.3 being one of them (Air and mini are still on 5.0).
This is so minor it's probably only going to be a press release and maybe a very short video.
Nonsense. It is tech. Firms like Apple need to provide upgrades regularly. E.g. look at how many folks whine here when a product like iMac is slow to update.
Consumers do not need to buy every year, but vendors need to upgrade regularly, which often is ~every year for logistical reasons.
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"Minor" is in the eyes of the beholder. Most upgraders like me are more than one generation back and are indeed looking for things like BT 5.3 and WiFi 6E - which coming most recently from a v1 iPad Air I consider huge, not minor.
It certainly would be unusual for Apple to go a year without updating the base iPad, and they've left it in a bit of a weird position with the ageing 9th gen and awkwardly positioned 10th gen. Replacing both with an A15 based 11th gen, and releasing the USB C model of the Apple Pencil would tidy things up a lot.
I can see why they might want to wait a bit longer for the iPad mini, the A16 alone would be a tiny upgrade from the A15, though with 6GB or 8GB RAM it might make it a little more appealing. They could also shuffle the storage tiers a bit too, as NAND flash prices are falling meaningfully again now they could probably move to 128GB base, or at least reintroduce a 128GB tier between the 64GB and 256GB. The Air is probably fine as it is until next year. It already has the M1, so the M2 isn't desperately needed, 8GB RAM is plenty.
I can see why they might want to wait a bit longer for the iPad mini, the A16 alone would be a tiny upgrade from the A15, though with 6GB or 8GB RAM it might make it a little more appealing. They could also shuffle the storage tiers a bit too, as NAND flash prices are falling meaningfully again now they could probably move to 128GB base, or at least reintroduce a 128GB tier between the 64GB and 256GB. The Air is probably fine as it is until next year. It already has the M1, so the M2 isn't desperately needed, 8GB RAM is plenty.
That doesn’t seem too realistic. We got the 13.6 m2 and the 15 m2 MacBook air this year. Apple bring out an m3 MacBook air in the same year does seem highly unlikely.
iPad? What the helll’s an iPad lol
I think they meant iPod. Easy mistake. Still gotta get one of those!
I think they meant iPod. Easy mistake. Still gotta get one of those!
But that’s exactly what happened this year too, remember?
2023 Jan: M2 / M2 Pro mini, 14” 16” MBP
2023 June: Mac Studio, Mac Pro, 15” MBA
So majority of current Macs were released within the first 6 months of 2023. (save for iMac, 13” MBAs/touchbar)
M1 and M2 are on the same 5 NM node with exception of the M2 just being optimized with more graphics cores and the new chassis for the M2 Air.
Keep in mind, that was before the pandemic and Apple had no choice competing in a field of thousands of Windows OEMs. They couldn’t depend on just having a different OS.
macOS is free and even Sonoma with its superficial features still outshines Windows 11. When you think desktop operating systems have reached their zenith, a feature comparison of the Dynamic Wallpapers/screensavers vs Windows Spotlight proves Apple still puts some thought in each update. My 2015 MacBook Pro came with OS Yosemite and I have been able to upgrade to 10.11 .12 .13 .14 .15, 11 and 12. Monterrey will continue to be supported with security updates until fall of next year. I think 9 years of updates for what is now considered vintage hardware is a good run. Windows 11 can’t even run on some computers from 2019.
See my previous reply. I’m sure if you were a business, the burden of maintaining code bases for two different architectures, one that is now considered legacy, would start to get costly; even for a company the size of Apple. I have an iPad from 2017, it supports iPadOS 17 and will likely get an additional year of security updates. I do think my iPhone X could have gotten at lease base level support, that said, its still getting security updates. Also, its not like Macs stop working once they stop getting OS and security support. I have a 20 year old Ti PowerBook G4’s that still works.
My original point is that Apple knows that people are holding onto their money. There is no sense in putting out products if the demand is not there and the existing fleet is meeting the needs. The only people crying for M3 are on YouTube looking for content.
spot on, some people here have such a veneration for Apple that they think Apple always thinks about what's good for the customer... 😅
Are not all tablet lines?
Tablet sales are down across the board.
And Apple appears to have held sales better than their competitors.
It's a product category that has now plateaued. I suspect it will be replacement from here on. I have an old (6 years?) Android tablet that I only use to play games when waiting in a doctor's office, or to rarely read a document while I'm lying down. I feel no compunction to buy a new one.
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As reflected by the A17 Pro, I think the hardware accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading support in the future AS GPU's is something that will be beneficial to people waiting for whats coming for future Apple products such as the M3 SoC's, now that we have seen it in action on the iPhone 15 pro's. I've never felt the M3 was just about energy efficiency/long battery life but boosting the GPU performance to being more on par with PC graphics.
Any firm of Apple's competence largely does "...thinks about what's good for the customer." That is the only way a firm gets to be as large and successful as Apple is.
Good you at least removed the "always" from what you quoted when editing your initial post, Apple makes some great products, but is also the king of milking their customers as much as they legally can... talk about "always thinking about what's good for the customer..."
Don't forget the AVP in the window... and maybe an iMac (or two?)
Where is my 2" Apple Watch Ultra Pro that unfolds to a 6.5" iPhone Pro Max that unfolds to a 9" iPad mini Pro that unfolds to a 13" iPad Pro that unfolds to a 16" iPad Studio...?!?