They will probably stick to ~yearly (12-18 month cycles) tick-tock upgrades with the iPad Pro now. There’s basically no doubt there’ll be a new M-series chip every year since a lot of the foundational tech will already be developed for that year’s iPhone. I would expect all the M1 devices to be updated yearly with the M2, M3, etc. Pretty simple business proposition; develop one new processor and boost the sales of five different product lines. I think many of their products, which were formerly neglected for years at a time while Apole waited for Intel to get their **** together, will now get more frequent updates.
I’m anticipating the 2022 iPads to get the M2 processor (based on N5P process), mini-LED on the 11”, possibly more robust configuration options (i.e. Configure 128GB with 16GB RAM), a gold color, and an even fancier camera system on the back.
Maybe. We will see. But I disagree.
We have had an M1 and we still have devices being released with that chip 7 months later. Apple is constantly in the process of refreshing designs and more than just chips. So it’s not just as simple as a new chip and ship it out the door.
Apple designing their own chips does mean that they can have their own update cycle. But, Why every year? Remember, they have finite resources and they haven’t even released a chip for the upper end computers yet - we don’t even have the full foundation of M series chips. I think it’s wishful thinking to have a whole new set of chipsets come out every year for every device - pro and consumer levels. That would mean the ENTIRE lineup of computers, phones, and iPads all update yearly... I don’t think so.
And the question remains, at least for the iPad... why? The things are insane. Why spend the money and time changing out the production just for a moderately better chip? The average consumer doesn’t even know what an M1 chip is.
But this is the real reason = Apple has been using its own chips in iPads since the beginning and they had an 18 month cycle most of the time. Why change it now?
It wouldn’t make sense to me at all.
Again, however, the screen on the 11” is the one thing that makes me wonder if there will be a quicker update. I can’t see that staying different for too long.
