iPad Pro How many years of iPadOS upgrades can I expect for an iPad Pro 4th Generation?

[Mitochondrion]

Buying a brand new iPad Pro is expensive as it starts at £999. I found a 4th Generation iPad Pro which is two years old and it is much cheaper than buying a brand new iPad Pro.

Ideally, I would like to buy a last year generation but I cannot find a good price like I did for a 4th Generation iPad Pro.

How many years of iPadOS upgrades can I expect for a 4th Generation iPad Pro?

 

[rui no onna]

Which iPad Pro 4th generation? 11" or 13" (12.9")?

The 11" has M2 so I'd say 5-7 years.

The 12.9" has A12Z so probably a few years left. Maybe up to 2026 or 2027

Apple didn't release any iPads in 2023 iirc.

 

[Digitalguy]

If it's a 12.9, it should stop at iPadOS 20, if 11", M2 pro should get till iPadOS 24 (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/predictions-for-ipados-updates-over-the-next-8-years.2391411/)

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Id expect about 2 years less than a brand-new iPad.

 

[Mitochondrion]

Does the size actually matter? Isn't it the same like the iPhone Pro/Pro Max? I'm interested in 11-inch variant.

 

[GMShadow]

Does the size actually matter? Isn't it the same like the iPhone Pro/Pro Max? I'm interested in 11-inch variant.

It matters in this case because the generations aren't synchronized.

iPad Pro 12.9 1st Gen - iPad Pro 9.7
iPad Pro 12.9 2nd Gen - iPad Pro 10.5
iPad Pro 12.9 3rd Gen - iPad Pro 11 1st Gen

and it's continued on as such - the models currently on sale are iPad Pro 12.9 7th Gen and iPad Pro 11 5th Gen.

 

[dmccombs]

Does the size actually matter? Isn't it the same like the iPhone Pro/Pro Max? I'm interested in 11-inch variant.

So it sounds like you are interested in the M2 11" iPad Pro. As others mentioned above you should get 6-7 years of support from now.

 

[Greenmeenie]

I dunno. But I’ve been using a 2018 11” iPad Pro as my main content creation device, and it’s still going strong. These things are real workhorses that last forever.

 

[JPack]

Usually, you get 6 years of major iPadOS updates.

Since it was launched in 2022, you‘ll have about 4 years left.

 

[Reverend Benny]

Apple has no official numbers regarding how many years or versions they will support on any devices. Its a guessing game. Hopefully Apple will feel a bit of pressure from Samsung and Google and be a but more clear on how they will provide support in the future.
At least give a "minimum support" number so that customers can add that into the equation when trying to decide what device to get.

 

[Mitochondrion]

I think I will buy the M2 11-inch iPad Pro 4th generation. I just found out that there is no M3 iPad Pro. It turns out that Apple has skipped an entire generation.

This iPad Pro will be an upgrade from the 10.5-inch iPad Pro.

 

[AustinJerry]

My 1st-gen iPad Pro was no longer receiving updates. Not getting security updates is concerning, so I upgraded to the latest iPad Pro (M4) recently. No regrets, as the new one is noticeably faster and supports features not available on the 1st-gen.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

Since the M2 iPad Air was released this year and the M2 iPad Pro share basically similar internals, maybe Apple extends the Pro models and aligns support with the M2 Air. But as others have said, it's a guessing game.

 

[*~Kim~*]

Since the M2 iPad Air was released this year and the M2 iPad Pro share basically similar internals, maybe Apple extends the Pro models and aligns support with the M2 Air. But as others have said, it's a guessing game.

I would expect this to be the case. No iPads were released in 2023 so they will likely have to have an OS release that like iPadOS 14 and 15, doesn’t drop anything.

 

[JPack]

Since the M2 iPad Air was released this year and the M2 iPad Pro share basically similar internals, maybe Apple extends the Pro models and aligns support with the M2 Air. But as others have said, it's a guessing game.

Apple doesn’t work like that unfortunately. They base it on launch date of the model.

iPad Pro 10.5: A10X
iPad 7: A10

Only iPad 7 which launched later supports iPadOS 18. The iPad Pro even has more RAM.

For M2 iPad Pro, expect no more than 4 years since it was launched in 2022.

 

[Digitalguy]

It's not the year of launch (or the SOC) that matters with Apple, it's the OS of launch, so iPads launched in Spring have shorter support than devices launched in Autumn, this has been the case for years and it's pretty constant: 7 OS updates for the pro/air and 5 for the base iPad. Unless things change in the future, but there have been no exceptions since the iPad air 2. So the M2 air will have longer support than the M2 pro

 

[arc of the universe]

old school thinking: 6 years from launch of the model. maximum.
post AI requirements: i would imagine about 4 years from time of launch of the model.
yes and i am talking about hardware itself and on top of that the operating system.
there is a reason why apple is upgrading everything to M4 chips + 16 GB RAM. and this is only the beginning.
your iPhone and iPad will become the new supercomputer in your hand.
had NEVER upgraded across the board so quickly across all product lines like they have just done.
they need to get a model where you pay for AI in your pocket.

4 years will probably be the new standard during the 1st 10 year period of AI on apple products. apple will need to evolve very quickly to stay in the running and prevent new companies with new devices from eating into apple's market share.