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I can't see that happening. The iPad Pro is called such for a reason. If they were going to give the new Air a keyboard case and pencil support they'd just have released the Air 3 with the A9X and those specs/features rather than bother launching the Pro.

The 9.7" iPad is not a Pro iPad and the iPad Pro is not the same iPad as the 9.7" models, they serve different demographics, even if there are some people who bought a Pro to use Twitter, play Angry Birds and watch Netflix.

I have to disagree. there are many reasons why it's a "pro" model and the use of a pencil is just one of them. Apple will sell far more 9.7" models and make far more money pushing pencils with this one as well. I'm looking at it from a business perspective I guess.
 
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If they add support for the Pencil, that would sell it for me.

Force Touch hasn't been a cornerstone feature for me personally, and I can see there being some challenged implementing it on a bigger screen.
Same here. I bet all future iPads will support the pencil including the new mini's
 
Pencil support, PLEASE! Love Pencil, but iPad Pro is simply too big, heavy and unwieldy to carry around much.
 
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The iPad Air 1 is slowly becoming the new iPad 3. I expect the Air 2 will be around for quite some time although I'll probably upgrade anyways.

The Air 1 was a great iPad model. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I upgraded (and I'll probably sell and upgrade again), but I had no issues with performance the year I owned it. It had excellent battery life, and I liked the speakers better than the Air 2.

Looking forward to seeing what Apple has to offer in March.
 
My predictions are there will not be an iPad Air 3.

To me the iPad pro is the new iPad. As the X series a chips has always been reserved for the iPads.
 
The Air 1 was a great iPad model. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I upgraded (and I'll probably sell and upgrade again), but I had no issues with performance the year I owned it. It had excellent battery life, and I liked the speakers better than the Air 2.

Looking forward to seeing what Apple has to offer in March.
Will Apple discontinue the Air 1?
 
Just another revision and nothing new to see. Even a resolution bump and Amoled display would not tempt me. iPads in all honesty are getting stale. If Apple would slap in a full version of OS X and make it turn into a full blown computer when paired up with a keyboard and mouse I may be interested. But Apples greed won't allow them or the price would be $1000 plus.
Wow! Not only are you in this odd "an iPad must work exactly as the Surface Pro" camp, you also demand it to be way cheaper than what Microsoft has to offer. Surface Pro 4 prices range from $899 to $1799 with the keyboard for an extra $130. How greedy from Apple to imaginary demand a price of $1000+ for a fantasy product, they refuse to build and others can't build cheaper in real life.

Tim Cook, you owe me!
 
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Ah... weird. Forgot. Wonder why that was - guess they were still touting the power of that first 64-bit chip.
The X stands for something eXtra in the iPad compared to the iPhone. Initially that was more graphics power, because of the demands of the much bigger Retina display. With the A7 the graphics in the phone became good enough to also run a tablet, that's why there is no A7X. The A8X boosted multi-core performance with triple-core CPU in advance for Split Screen multitasking in iOS 9 and the A9X was tailored for the iPad Pro screen-size and refresh-rate, 4GB memory, pencil digitizer etc.
I think a new Air will see a similar A9X.
The A9 will provide a nice boost in single-core performance over the A8X. And I don't think the pencil technology will even fit in an iPad Air 3. Apple won't build in a chip you can't even utilize. We might have seen our last X chip in a midsize iPad. A9X, A10X, A11X might be iPad Pro only.
 
I feel the same way. The reason my iPad 2 has lasted so long was that performance wise it was a significant upgrade in terms of RAM and GPU/CPU over the iPad 1, plus it had enough features. I want my next iPad to also be a step up in performance and ram so it lasts the distance, plus it needs the features.
Then you probably should've gone with the iPad Air 2 when it came out. Doubled RAM, huge leap in CPU/GPU power yet same display resolution, and much thinner case. Sounds pretty similar to iPad 2.
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The X stands for something eXtra in the iPad compared to the iPhone. Initially that was more graphics power, because of the demands of the much bigger Retina display. With the A7 the graphics in the phone became good enough to also run a tablet, that's why there is no A7X. The A8X boosted multi-core performance with triple-core CPU in advance for Split Screen multitasking in iOS 9 and the A9X was tailored for the iPad Pro screen-size and refresh-rate, 4GB memory, pencil digitizer etc.
The A9 will provide a nice boost in single-core performance over the A8X. And I don't think the pencil technology will even fit in an iPad Air 3. Apple won't build in a chip you can't even utilize. We might have seen our last X chip in a midsize iPad. A9X, A10X, A11X might be iPad Pro only.

I think the X still basically means "more powerful GPU". Only exception was the A8X which also had a different CPU. Now with the A9X, it's back to the old scheme: More powerful GPU than in the A9 with the CPU being the same as in the A9, only achieving better performance through higher clock rate. And Apple doesn't see RAM as a differentiator for the "X-Variants", as RAM always varied: A4 existed with 256 and 512 MB, A8 with 1 and 2 GB.

So I wouldn't be surprised to see a lower clocked A9X with half the RAM in iPad Air 3. Just as possible as a higher clocked A9. Main difference would be graphics power.
 
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I have the iPad Air 1 so I am interested in upgrading in March. Two more items to add to the wish list:

  1. 256GB flash drive
  2. The New Smart Keyboard
 
The iPad Air 3 will not have Force Touch, for the above two reaons.
Some form of pressure sensitivity ( Force Touch / 3D Touch / Pencil ) has now come to almost all of Apples products. The iPad Air is way too important to do nothing and it is in dire need of better input and control. I don't believe in Pencil support, but 3D Touch why not? It will take some time to make it work reliably on a bigger stiffer screen, but it will come eventually. Maybe that was the only reason, why the iPad Air 3 wasn't upgraded last year. Maybe it is the reason, why it won't be upgraded before fall?

PS: Also iOS apps are supposed to run universal on iPhone and iPad. There MUST be 3D Touch for iPad!
 
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Why does it bother so many here that other people are taking video/photos with their iPads??

How does that impact your life?

Now, camera flash is long overdue, as is having more than one bloody speaker.

However, Apple can call me when the iPad has the ability to have multiple accounts, a filesystem I can access, and maybe a non-proprietary bleeding connector (that one will not happen, but I can wish).

Until then, no thanks.
 
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Yep the pencil and 3d touch will be enough for me top upgrade from my Air 2. Led flash would be a complete waste of time
I would say that, because the flash would be useful to do quick scans of documents. Apps like Scanner Pro would benefit from it.
And yes, there are many other uses for the flash and taking special photos with the iPad, even with the Pro, besides just going around and taking stupid photos. After all this is a Pro device, isn't it?
 
Why does it bother so many here that other people are taking video/photos with their iPads??

How does that impact your life?

Now, camera flash is long overdue, as is having more than one bloody speaker.

However, Apple can call me when the iPad has the ability to have multiple accounts, a filesystem I can access, and maybe a non-proprietary bleeding connector (that one will not happen, but I can wish).

Until then, no thanks.

Guess you are out then, probably forever. Go buy a laptop. Why are you posting here, how does this thread impact your life? Oh, and iPads have had 2 speakers for a while now, keep up.
 
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Guess you are out then, probably forever. Go buy a laptop. Why are you posting here, how does this thread impact your life? Oh, and iPads have had 2 speakers for a while now, keep up.

Calm down, pardner. Not that I need to justify myself to you, but I'm in a communicative mood:

1. I am probably out forever, but here's to hoping Apple comes to its senses. It would be nice to do all the things I mentioned with an iPad instead on having to go with their competition.

2. I have 2 laptops: A 2011 17" MBP and a 2012 15" hi-res MBP. None of the current machines are superior in what I can do with mine (Retina shmetina).

3. I am posting here because I can, and I own 3 iPads: a 64 GB AT&T original, a 64 GB WiFi 2, and an original Air

4. Speakers, got me there. I really meant to say "on each side when holding it horizontally". I am NOT keeping up though, with Apple's philosophies lately regarding both hardware and software design.
 
Calm down, pardner. Not that I need to justify myself to you, but I'm in a communicative mood:

1. I am probably out forever, but here's to hoping Apple comes to its senses. It would be nice to do all the things I mentioned with an iPad instead on having to go with their competition.

2. I have 2 laptops: A 2011 17" MBP and a 2012 15" hi-res MBP. None of the current machines are superior in what I can do with mine (Retina shmetina).

3. I am posting here because I can, and I own 3 iPads: a 64 GB AT&T original, a 64 GB WiFi 2, and an original Air

4. Speakers, got me there. I really meant to say "on each side when holding it horizontally". I am NOT keeping up though, with Apple's philosophies lately regarding both hardware and software design.
Surely a 2016 machine would be better?
 
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Surely a 2016 machine would be better?

Nope, for several reasons (limited to my use case):

1. Storage is a deal breaker: I currently have 2 TB in both my MBPs in RAID 0 to sync three-ways with a 2TB iMac 27". Last I checked a while ago, they make 2TB drives that fit, meaning I can have 4TB in there and more as my needs increase.

2. Upgradeability: I can upgrade the RAM, HDDs to SSD and any combination of the 2 (since I can have 2 drives in there) at will. No need for a life-sucking trip to the Apple Store or price-gouging the cost of parts/labor.

3. Expandability: My 17 has an Expresscard slot, meaning I can plug into anything they make cards for (currently used for connecting to E-SATA enclosures holding all my older drives full of stuff).

4. Existing infrastructure: I have several decent firewire enclosures I don't want to get rid of yet, as well as music-making hardware that uses firewire as connectors.

I just don't think it's time to upgrade yet.

For my needs, these machines suit me just fine. I'll wait until TB3 and USB-C become standard, and lower-cost, higher-capacity, third-party SSDs are available for Mac portables. Unless Apple starts soldering those in, then I'm done with them permanently.
 
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