iPad Whats next for the next-gen 2015 iPad?

[Jawnathin]

Now that we see iPad Air2 maintaining at nearly feature parity with iPhones 6s, what is next for the 2015 iPad?

With it being a redesign, I think it will be a huge release to get the market excited about tablets again. My guesses/wishlist...

• Will be called Air 3, not a new name.
• A9X sticks with tri core CPU and hex core GPUs but A9 will be a brand new design, not an iterative update like the A7 to A8 was. Resulting in 2x faster CPU & GPU than the A8X (similar from A6 to A7 jump)
• New design language to bring it closer to the iPhone6, including the seamless edge glass
• Brings back the mute/rotation lock rocker switch on the side
• Same thickness as Air2, but with higher capacity battery for better life
• Same 9.7" screen size
• Retina HD screen with dual domain pixel and other Retina HD improvements
• 2x resolution for 4k support, 4096 × 3072 pixels (12.6 megapixels, aspect ratio 4:3, same as YouTube & Vimeo's 4K resolution) with class leading 528PPI
• 3GB of ram to help with increased resolution
• Built in NFC so it could be a payment terminal for ApplePay (eliminating Square and other accessories)
• Non-removable SIM. Switch carriers using AppleSIM
• Similar camera setup as Air2, sticks to 8mp, still no LED flash
• Similar LTE & 802.11ac support as now
• Continues to use TouchID & Lightning Cables
• Same price points for memory & cellular options, including 16GB base configuration

 

[12vElectronics]

Two words: iPad Pro.

 

[JasonQG]

Something like Senseg Feelscreen haptic feedback would be neat.

 

[gadget123]

Wireless charging?

 

[TommyA6]

Now that we see iPad Air2 maintaining at nearly feature parity with iPhones 6s, what is next for the 2015 iPad?

With it being a redesign, I think it will be a huge release to get the market excited about tablets again. My guesses/wishlist...

• Will be called Air 3, not a new name.
• A9X sticks with tri core CPU and hex core GPUs but A9 will be a brand new design, not an iterative update like the A7 to A8 was. Resulting in 2x faster CPU & GPU than the A8X (similar from A6 to A7 jump)
• New design language to bring it closer to the iPhone6, including the seamless edge glass
• Brings back the mute/rotation lock rocker switch on the side
• Same thickness as Air2, but with higher capacity battery for better life
• Same 9.7" screen size
• Retina HD screen with dual domain pixel and other Retina HD improvements
• 2x resolution for 4k support, 4096 × 3072 pixels (12.6 megapixels, aspect ratio 4:3, same as YouTube & Vimeo's 4K resolution) with class leading 528PPI
• 3GB of ram to help with increased resolution
• Built in NFC so it could be a payment terminal for ApplePay (eliminating Square and other accessories)
• Non-removable SIM. Switch carriers using AppleSIM
• Similar camera setup as Air2, sticks to 8mp, still no LED flash
• Similar LTE & 802.11ac support as now
• Continues to use TouchID & Lightning Cables
• Same price points for memory & cellular options, including 16GB base configuration

That kind of resolution would kill the performance and battery life, especially now with Apple using so much transparency in iOS 7 and 8.

 

[WilliamG]

That kind of resolution would kill the performance and battery life, especially now with Apple using so much transparency in iOS 7 and 8.

Oh come now. Apple has put a 5K display in the iMac, and it uses 30% LESS power than than the previous iMac display, despite being 4x the number of pixels.

I'll say it like I always do.. It's not possible until it suddenly is.

 

[TommyA6]

Oh come now. Apple has put a 5K display in the iMac, and it uses 30% LESS power than than the previous iMac display, despite being 4x the number of pixels.

I'll say it like I always do.. It's not possible until it suddenly is.

Even if they managed to retain "10 hour battery life", the performance would be crap. Even the ipad Air 2 has some stutters (spotlight screen rotation for ex.), which is ridiculous.

I'll be all for a higher resolution iPad display WHEN:
Apple optimizes iOS to run silky smooth (60 fps) on the latest hardware. (not happening at the moment). This especially goes for transparency, which is the cause of all the lagginess and choppiness in iOS 7 and 8.

 

[Jawnathin]

Two words: iPad Pro.

Yes, this would be neat, a new product line bridging tablet & computing even further. Too large for me, but I see the appeal. Would really like split screen multitasking.

Something like Senseg Feelscreen haptic feedback would be neat.

Would be very cool, but sadly probably won't happen for this next gen. Dynamic screen 'feel' based on what is on the screen would be pretty amazing.

Wireless charging?

That would be very cool. Not that you bring it up, I'm surprised Apple hasn't done it for its phones yet.

That kind of resolution would kill the performance and battery life, especially now with Apple using so much transparency in iOS 7 and 8.

4K is probably the biggest stretch of what I listed since the screen now is pretty gorgeous, but I do not think it is far off.

A9X will be more powerful and energy efficient than the A8X. Just like every generation of processor. They already have energy efficient displays as seen in the 5K Retina iMac. They will find a way to cram larger capacity battery in the same size tablet as they shrink the size of the other components.

Oh come now. Apple has put a 5K display in the iMac, and it uses 30% LESS power than than the previous iMac display, despite being 4x the number of pixels.

I'll say it like I always do.. It's not possible until it suddenly is.

Agreed! We have the technologies now and right around the corner to make this happen in a tablet form factor. iPhone 6+ is already at 400PPI. Note 4 is over 500. We have more room and more battery in a tablet.

 

[TommyA6]

Yes, this would be neat, a new product line bridging tablet & computing even further. Too large for me, but I see the appeal. Would really like split screen multitasking.



Would be very cool, but sadly probably won't happen for this next gen. Dynamic screen 'feel' based on what is on the screen would be pretty amazing.



That would be very cool. Not that you bring it up, I'm surprised Apple hasn't done it for its phones yet.



4K is probably the biggest stretch of what I listed since the screen now is pretty gorgeous, but I do not think it is far off.

A9X will be more powerful and energy efficient than the A8X. Just like every generation of processor. They already have energy efficient displays as seen in the 5K Retina iMac. They will find a way to cram larger capacity battery in the same size tablet as they shrink the size of the other components.



Agreed! We have the technologies now and right around the corner to make this happen in a tablet form factor. iPhone 6+ is already at 400PPI. Note 4 is over 500. We have more room and more battery in a tablet.

iOS 8 doesn't perform perfectly smooth on any iPads (including air 2), due to crappy optimization (mostly blurring effect). It would be a mess with a 4K display, unless Apple finally decides to optimize the smoothness and performance of iOS.

 

[Jawnathin]

iOS 8 doesn't perform perfectly smooth on any iPads (including air 2), due to crappy optimization (mostly blurring effect). It would be a mess with a 4K display, unless Apple finally decides to optimize the smoothness and performance of iOS.

Does not need to be perfectly smooth, just needs to be very good and Apple can bring it there.

Using the A5X as a baseline as it powered the first Retina display. A6X was 2x faster, A7 is 4x faster and A8X is 10x faster.

If the A9X continues the trend of 2x faster than previous gen, it will be 20x more powerful than the original A5X while only needing to drive 4x the pixels.

This is a better 'performance per pixel' ratio than the A7 which drives iOS8 just fine.

 

[Trebuin]

I'm dreaming here, but it would be nice if the mini got a decent upgrade by the spring. I just don't see that happening unless apple made a simple upgrade to their line and they let the new iPad air advertise the advancements for the mini. It's simple enough to swap the change of the sensor and might actually be the same dimensions as the iPad air. With how well the air is doing, I really want to see that upgrade to the mini before I buy it now...It's not a simple traditional "you'll just keep waiting for the next thing," but rather that the next model will have that massive improvement. I don't expect the one after that to have nearly as much a jump. This is where apple can really make their money...big on the iPhone 6, big on the iPad air 2, drain the iPad mini line...wait well beyond the 90 day return, release the gigantiPad and the iPad mini 4 with massive boost. Timing the iPad mini 4 would definitely help a profit quarter...gigatiPad is a risk in my opinion.

Personally, I would like to buy the iPad mini with the A8x before I deploy again, but I just don't see that happening with no rumors backing up an early upgrade.

 

[Supermallet]

No way they go to 3 GB of RAM. It took them 6 releases of the iPad to get to 2 GB of RAM. They're not just going to jump to 3 next year.

 

[vmflapem]

I'll be happy as long as they don't continue on with their thinner and light bs. Battery life > thinness.

And no to this:

• 3GB of ram to help with increased resolution

 

[Nautilus007]

Notification led!!

 

[Jawnathin]

I'm dreaming here, but it would be nice if the mini got a decent upgrade by the spring. I just don't see that happening unless apple made a simple upgrade to their line and they let the new iPad air advertise the advancements for the mini. It's simple enough to swap the change of the sensor and might actually be the same dimensions as the iPad air. With how well the air is doing, I really want to see that upgrade to the mini before I buy it now...It's not a simple traditional "you'll just keep waiting for the next thing," but rather that the next model will have that massive improvement. I don't expect the one after that to have nearly as much a jump. This is where apple can really make their money...big on the iPhone 6, big on the iPad air 2, drain the iPad mini line...wait well beyond the 90 day return, release the gigantiPad and the iPad mini 4 with massive boost. Timing the iPad mini 4 would definitely help a profit quarter...gigatiPad is a risk in my opinion.

Personally, I would like to buy the iPad mini with the A8x before I deploy again, but I just don't see that happening with no rumors backing up an early upgrade.

A Mini with Air 2 specs would be killer. It's a shame that the Mini dropped off on feature parity relative to the Air 2.

Given the flop the Mini 3 seems to be with the rumored poor sales, I do think it will put Mini 4 in a very interesting position. Very curious to see how Apple handles it moving forward.

No way they go to 3 GB of RAM. It took them 6 releases of the iPad to get to 2 GB of RAM. They're not just going to jump to 3 next year.

I'll be happy as long as they don't continue on with their thinner and light bs. Battery life > thinness.

And no to this:

I agree that 2GB would stay if they stuck to current resolution. Not really a need to go beyond that with current resolution size.

But I think if they move to 4K, should bump up the memory. They did this upon upgrades to higher res screens before. The Note 4 already has 3GB. But Apple is really stringent when it comes to delivering the right amount of memory at the right time. I hope they learned from their mistake the first time.

iPad 1 - 256mb
iPad 2 - 512mb
iPad 3 - 1GB + Retina

iPhone 3G - 128mb
iPhone 3GS - 256mb
iPhone 4 - 512MB + Retina

 

[addictzz]

Now that we see iPad Air2 maintaining at nearly feature parity with iPhones 6s, what is next for the 2015 iPad?

With it being a redesign, I think it will be a huge release to get the market excited about tablets again. My guesses/wishlist...

• Will be called Air 3, not a new name. - agree
• A9X sticks with tri core CPU and hex core GPUs but A9 will be a brand new design, not an iterative update like the A7 to A8 was. Resulting in 2x faster CPU & GPU than the A8X (similar from A6 to A7 jump) - not so sure about the X suffix but A9 for sure
• New design language to bring it closer to the iPhone6, including the seamless edge glass - agree
• Brings back the mute/rotation lock rocker switch on the side - nope
• Same thickness as Air2, but with higher capacity battery for better life - agree
• Same 9.7" screen size - it's been the perfect size
• Retina HD screen with dual domain pixel and other Retina HD improvements - maybe
• 2x resolution for 4k support, 4096 × 3072 pixels (12.6 megapixels, aspect ratio 4:3, same as YouTube & Vimeo's 4K resolution) with class leading 528PPI - maybe
• 3GB of ram to help with increased resolution - not gonna happen
• Built in NFC so it could be a payment terminal for ApplePay (eliminating Square and other accessories) - agree
• Non-removable SIM. Switch carriers using AppleSIM - agree
• Similar camera setup as Air2, sticks to 8mp, still no LED flash - agree
• Similar LTE & 802.11ac support as now - agree
• Continues to use TouchID & Lightning Cables - agree
• Same price points for memory & cellular options, including 16GB base configuration - 32GB could happen.

My thoughts as bolded above.

 

[betabeta]

Pretty much confirmed with the 3x iPad assets found in 8.1, the resolution for the 12.9 iPad will be 3072x2304 for 298 ppi, that would look fantastic.

I think the Pro/Plus will be out in the spring, with multitasking, better speakers, more ram, and dare I say a special stylus for artists and enterprise.

Maybe they will offer 2 models, and offer a 4096x3072 screen at 397 ppi with 4X assets, BUT no one has found 4x iPad assets that I know of.

 

[threelions]

A better screen with more uniformity. No more thinner and lighter but more quality.

 

[maflynn]

I really think Apple has hit the wall with the iPad. What else can they add, to really entice people to buy the tablets. Sales of the iPad are decreasing (Mac sales are exceeding the sales of the iPad). I'm not looking to bash the tablet but point out that I don't think apple has any ideas on improving the tablet. Making it thinner is ludicrous at this stage. I don't know of any features that would cause an iPad rMini or iPad Air owner to upgrade next year given the steep prices.

 

[zhenya]

I presume you mean in total revenue as they still sold well over twice as many iPads as Macs in the last year?

It does however look like the ipad market is, in the long run, a lot more like the Mac market then the iPhone one. I guess that must be why they are continuing to sell so many ipad models - to try and slow the decline in sales as much as possible. To me that is just an implicit acknowledgment that iPads don't need updating all that frequently. It's going to bite them in the long run.