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iPad Air 4 Said to Launch in March 2021 With A14 Processor, iPad Pro Update Possibly Next Month

I think that the expectation of these devices changing drastically every year is ludicrous. These are mature products, like the MacBooks are.

That said, I wish Apple would:

1. Put more RAM in these things
2. Change the camera position to landscape
3. Replace the regular iPads with the mock-ups
4. Replace the Air naming convention with SE
 
This is no good for me, I am still on Air 2 and hoping for a Sept-Oct release for iPad Air 4. March is too far away. These rumors really hinders your choice of purchase. If i buy Air 3 now, Air 4 might release in October. If I wait till October and no Air 4, then I will have to wait until March.
 
iHack13 said:
The iPad Pro now has a Keyboard with a trackpad.
Apple is switching to ARM.
The devkit is powered by an A12Z from the iPad Pro 2020.

How can you be so sure that it wont come to the ipad pros?
Click to expand...
I agree. Maybe it won’t be Big Sur coming to the iPad Pro, but it does seem like they are slowly working towards that direction in the future.

Some additional points:
- Control center in Big Sur seems to be more touch oriented with the big buttons and sliders
- Other controls such as the menu bar, menu items, and side bar are slightly larger in Big Sur
- macOS supports Apple Pencil (via Sidecar)
- macOS will be supporting iOS apps natively with the switch to ARM
- App icons in Big Sur are square (squares are more touch friendly than oddly shaped icons)
- iPad Pros currently can have up to 1TB of storage, which is plenty big enough to hold a larger OS

I think it would be neat to have an iPad Pro that can run macOS when docked with the Magic Keyboard, and a simplified interface like iPadOS (or even macOS) when on the go. I think this would be a great reason to further separate the iPad Pros from the lower end models, especially if the rumored iPad Air 4 is going to be a lot like the current iPad Pro.
 
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iHack13 said:
I hope my iPad Pro 2018 Model wont be obsolete soon.
I wont buy a new iPad Pro , if macOS Big Sur comes to the iPad Pros and the 2018 model wont be supported.
Kind of worried that Apple's move earlier this year might be an indication for that. ("oh crap. 4GB isnt enough. all models need 6GB at least")

Also: Lets be honest. The iPad Pro doesnt live up to its name. We are still waiting for the "Pro" experience.
Click to expand...

No macOS on iPads. Nothing points that way.

Also: let’s be honest. “Pro” is just a name invented by a marketing department.
 
iHack13 said:
The iPad Pro now has a Keyboard with a trackpad.
Apple is switching to ARM.
The devkit is powered by an A12Z from the iPad Pro 2020.

How can you be so sure that it wont come to the ipad pros?
Click to expand...

It would be a public dismissal of the capabilities of iOS in a nutshell to switch to macOS.

Apple markets iPad as the future of computing or something like that. Reverting to an older OS is not going to happen.

They will however, to my understanding, make more efforts to bring iPad software to the Mac to enrich the Mac software ecosystem, which is lacking in scale compared to iOS.
 
xxray said:
So they’d basically be selling the iPad Pro 11” as an Air. Makes no sense. And not a reputable source.
Click to expand...

No!
The iPad Air is midrange. You get the A14, not the A14X/Z, and everything else is slightly downgraded. (Probably no Pro-Motion screen, worse camera, probably not four speakers, probably less DRAM, ...)

Same as the iPad Air TODAY has an A12 -- not an A12X/Z.

If you don't care about those, congratulations -- you are in the demographic to buy an iPad Air! But don't pretend it's the same thing as a pro.
 
name99 said:
No!
The iPad Air is midrange. You get the A14, not the A14X/Z, and everything else is slightly downgraded. (Probably no Pro-Motion screen, worse camera, probably not four speakers, probably less DRAM, ...)

Same as the iPad Air TODAY has an A12 -- not an A12X/Z.

If you don't care about those, congratulations -- you are in the demographic to buy an iPad Air! But don't pretend it's the same thing as a pro.
Click to expand...

I’m very aware the Air is midrange. My entire point was that this rumor is giving up a lot of advantages that only the Pro has and is giving it to the midrange model, which doesn’t make much sense given it’s likely to cannibalize pro sales and give the Pro less differentiation.
 
Zdigital2015 said:
I’ve said this in other threads...the 11” iPad Pro is going to go away, and we’re going to see a 12” iPad Pro and a new 14”-15” iPad Pro in 2021 with all the goodies we’ve seen rumored in other iPad Pro threads. This is classic Apple. Bookmark this post, let’s see if I’m right.
Click to expand...
I agree that the 11" iPP is going away. But I don't think we'll see an iPP larger than 12.9". I predict that the 12.9" size will be the only iPP size and the 11" size will be for the next iPad Air.
 
ericwn said:
Maybe you needed a new iPad right then? That’s usually when I buy them.
Click to expand...

ugh, when will this "you need it" thing die off?

People don't just buy tech because they "need it". I mean, sure they do, often, but a lot of the times they just want something. Just like cars. If we just bought cars we need instead of want, we would all be buying old Soviet LADAs.
 
I hope they come out with the mini led ipad pro a month from now..I will upgrade my 2018 11 inch ipad pro if they do that..they originally said march 2021 but this would be a nice surprise how reliable is this leaker?
 
ericwn said:
It would be a public dismissal of the capabilities of iOS in a nutshell to switch to macOS.

Apple markets iPad as the future of computing or something like that. Reverting to an older OS is not going to happen.

They will however, to my understanding, make more efforts to bring iPad software to the Mac to enrich the Mac software ecosystem, which is lacking in scale compared to iOS.
Click to expand...
Oh good god, MacOS is a older OS to IOS? If it wasn't this transition to Apple Silicon and the ability to run iOS/iPadOS apps as a poor substitute for lack of native applications, you would not want to run those at all.

MacOS is a hardened environment that doesn't need a Apple App Store to act as a gatekeeper for all the bad stuff out there. Its a full version of Unix with a Darwin Kernel. You really need to consider that IOS is a the stepchild here and not the first born. LOL

I use both, but you truly made be laugh with that attitude.
 
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ericwn said:
It would be a public dismissal of the capabilities of iOS in a nutshell to switch to macOS.

Apple markets iPad as the future of computing or something like that. Reverting to an older OS is not going to happen.

They will however, to my understanding, make more efforts to bring iPad software to the Mac to enrich the Mac software ecosystem, which is lacking in scale compared to iOS.
Click to expand...

With the switch to Apple Silicon in the Mac, I think it is more likely that iPadOS will replace MacOS.
 
4look4rd said:
RIP anyone that bought the 2020 iPad Pro. That version should have been released only as a dev kit for AR cameras, almost no benefit over the 2018.
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Anyone who had the previous model and ran out and bought the 2020 model to replace it is foolish. It was clear that it had one primary change. If they didn’t need that change, either they upgraded because they were confused, or they just really like needlessly spending money.

Now, for people new to the iPad Pro, or upgrading from a 5 year old model, the 2020 iPad Pro is absolutely a great machine. Holding off from releasing minor updates because it might cause a befuddled user with too much money to upgrade, would be a disservice to anyone who did need/want the new features.
 
Spock said:
With the switch to Apple Silicon in the Mac, I think it is more likely that iPadOS will replace MacOS.
Click to expand...

Apple is not in the business of giving users the opposite of what they want. Mac users don't want iPadOS. They don't want a computer without a keyboard and no ports. And iPad users don't want macOS.

If Apple wanted to replace macOS, they wouldn't need Big Sur. The iPad Pro already exists.
 
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JPack said:
Apple is not in the business of giving users the opposite of what they want. Mac users don't want iPadOS. They don't want a computer without a keyboard and no ports. And iPad users don't want macOS.

If Apple wanted to replace macOS, they wouldn't need Big Sur. The iPad Pro already exists.
Click to expand...
I really hated when Microsoft fooled with Windows being run on phones up to computers, it eventually was hated so much they redid the Windows 8.1 to Windows 10.

I like the fact that Apple specially modifies IOS to work on Apple TV's, iPads and gives those different sets of functionality.

This cross marriage of Mac OS getting iOS functionality is not new, but this thought that iPadOS is somehow going to acquire the ruggedness of a true UNIX OS is a bit far fetched. Its just not possible at this time or near future. But as I saw the MacOS evolve one day it might be a lot closer. But then the MacOS would be that more advanced. ;)
 
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