Apple could launch all-new iPads next year

According to a new rumour Apple is set to refresh its entire iPad range in 2024, with new tech, chips and designs. After the launch of the highly-anticipated Apple Vision Pro, a relaunch of iPad could be Apple's big focus for next year.

This comes from a report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman on Sunday, who often gets his Apple predictions spot on. His thinking is Apple has ignored iPad in 2023 and instead focused on the MacBook, iPhone 15 and Apple Watch, and it's rare for any tech company to make a big launch in November and December, so iPad has been left on the shelf this year.

Gurman wrote in his post, "Apple could have tried to rush out more new products, but revamped iPads and AirPods aren't yet ready. The company plans to update its entire iPad lineup during 2024". Apple's iPad range was last updated in 2022, and iPad Mini in 2021, and design revisions were minimal, with a focus on new M1 and M2 chips.

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I think Gurman is onto something. Clearly Apple spent this year focussing on the launch of its impressive M3 chips and, particularly, the launch of iPhone 15, and has ignored iPad for now. Given iPad, iPad Mini, iPad Air and iPad Pro are so crucial to Apple's success it makes sense to give them room in 2024, to really showcase what a new range, perhaps powered by M3, could achieve.

If Apple decides to revamp its entire iPad range in one go, perhaps with M3, then it could be an impressive line-up of tablets. Could we even see the first iPad Pro to go beyond 12.9 inches and take on Wacom directly?

Recently Apple has made a play for the games market, with Apple iPhone 15 running PS5-quality games like Resident Evil Village, and recently launching its new M3 Ultra-powered MacBook directly at games, with ray tracing pushed to the fore. I can imagine Apple's new iPads could be pitched to gamers, interesting in the same year we get Nintendo Switch 2.