iPad How upset will you be iPad Air 3, Lacks Apple Pencil display and Force Touch

[VforVelveta]

With rumors that the Air 3 isn't due until beginning of next year, part of me wonders if it will get the A9, Smart Connector, and Pencil support then. Right now those are all features that can push people towards the Pro and help it get some sales and traction, especially going into the holiday season. Then, after the Pro has had time to get its footing, the Air 3 comes out and picks those features up.

At least that's what I'm hoping for, right now a 9.7" iPad with the Pro's features is exactly what I'm looking for, and pretty much a day one purchase.

 

[newellj]

thanks for replying to my posts...

I'll get the Air 2, I would be seriously angry if they release one within couple of months

And fairly so. BTDT with the iPad 3. I was seriously annoyed. However, what I would tell you is that I really think you'd still be happy with the Air 2 even if they roll out an Air 3. It's an order of magnitude more capable than the Air or any prior generation iPad. Consider saving some cash by buying an Apple refurb and you're likely to feel good about that purchase for at least a couple of years.

 

[newellj]

With rumors that the Air 3 isn't due until beginning of next year, part of me wonders if it will get the A9, Smart Connector, and Pencil support then. Right now those are all features that can push people towards the Pro and help it get some sales and traction, especially going into the holiday season. Then, after the Pro has had time to get its footing, the Air 3 comes out and picks those features up.

At least that's what I'm hoping for, right now a 9.7" iPad with the Pro's features is exactly what I'm looking for, and pretty much a day one purchase.

Impossible to say for sure, but I would not count on getting getting Pro features like the stylus in the 9.7" iPads, ever. Apple has some remarkably inflexible ideas about keeping specific features in specific products and it's easy to see them keeping that as a distinctive feature of the Pro product line. Just a guess, obviously.

Read the post below, too, which is quoted from another tread. He makes several excellent and accurate points about the Air 2.

If the leaked Geekbench scores for the A9 in the 6s and 6s Plus are true then I called it weeks ago, as many others did.

The A8X was a monster of a chip, the A9 in the new iPhones have only just caught up with it. I think people need to realise that we now get new devices at such a frenetic pace that developers aren't getting the chance to fully utilise the older models first.

This results in the user base spread over various models and developers need to hit the sweet spot in terms of performance and support to maximise the revenue from that user base.

There's nothing the Air 1 can't run well right now and the Air 2 hasn't even been anywhere near pushed to its limit by developers.

The iPad Air 2 remains an absolute beast of a tablet, it's Apple's premium consumer tablet, there was no need for an Air 3 with the Pro being launched.

It would have been incredible to see the A9X and 4GB of RAM in an iPad Air 3, don't get me wrong, but Apple decided to use those specs on a Pro model. All it means is that IF we do get an iPad Air 3 next year it will be one hell of an upgrade with a much faster chip, more RAM, and 3D Touch.

As things stand the iPad Pro is so over powered that I don't see it being pushed by developers for years. The thing will last for a long, long time which in itself may cause issues as once people have the Pro they might hold onto it even longer than they did older 9.7" iPad models.

At the end of the day the Pro isn't for guys like us on here who, in the main, use our iPads for web browsing, social media, gaming, and the odd Word or Excel document. At the keynote Apple clearly aimed the Pro at power users from professional sectors like medicine, magazine publishing, etc. However, there will be some who will buy the Pro to go on Twitter and play Angry Birds!

In summary, there was no need for an iPad Air 2 this year and that's simply down to how much horsepower they put in the thing a year ago.