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DexBell

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Why do so many think we will see new iPad Pros in March? iPad Pros release every two years. The 12.9 Pro saw releases in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2020. The only reason the smaller iPad Pro saw yearly releases was it going from 9.7 inch in 2016 to 10.5 inch in 2017 and finally 11 inch, where it only released in 2018 and 2020. These leakers are notorious for being wrong, they have been saying Airtags are coming any day for years now and they all said we would see a new iPad Mini last Oct, still waiting....Hopefully there will be a new iPad mini this year though.
 

chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,716
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Why do so many think we will see new iPad Pros in March? iPad Pros release every two years. The 12.9 Pro saw releases in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2020. The only reason the smaller iPad Pro saw yearly releases was it going from 9.7 inch to 10.5 inch and finally 11 inch, where it only released in 2018 and 2020. These leakers are notorious for being wrong, they have been saying Airtags are coming any day for years now and they all said we would see a new iPad Mini last Oct, still waiting....Hopefully there will be a new iPad mini this year though.
The 2020 iPad Pro is a mildly revised 2018 iPad Pro with an outdated processor; the A14 processor in the 2020 iPad Air is faster at some tasks than the 2020 iPad Pro.
 

DexBell

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Except they aren't...
What is your track record? Where are you on this list? ;)
Where are the Airtags they have sworn were coming any day now for years? Where is the iPad Mini 6 they said was coming last Oct? I could go on about all the times they have been dead wrong.
 

Digitalguy

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Apr 15, 2019
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iPad Pros (and only Pros) are guaranteed 100% in March and their are basically the ONLY thing that is certain, other than Airtags. And according to the latest from Prosser, who when is says he is certain about something, it happens (when he isn’t he does not say he is, generally because not all his sources agree or have confirmed), we are also getting a new magic keyboard.
Last year people were asking will the iPad pro change and no longer be compatible with the MK? I said, iPad pro form factor is not changing, and will still be compatible for years, if anything, it’s the MK that is changing before the iPad pro form factor, well... apparently that’s what’s happening...
 

Digitalguy

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Where are the Airtags they have sworn were coming any day now for years? Where is the iPad Mini 6 they said was coming last Oct? I could go on about all the times they have been dead wrong.
Prosser said, in advance, they had been moved very late in the game to 2021, and now they are confirmed.
 

The Game 161

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Dec 15, 2010
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iPad Pro’s are likely coming in March it’s a matter of when. Air tags likely moved back due covid where Apple likely feel it was wasted releasing where really people couldn’t take advantage of what’s included as leakers have said they have been ready for a while
 
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DexBell

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iPad Pro’s are likely coming in March it’s a matter of when. Air tags likely moved back due covid where Apple likely feel it was wasted releasing where really people couldn’t take advantage of what’s included as leakers have said they have been ready for a while
Like I said in my original post, iPad Pros traditionally release every 2 years with the exception of 2018. The Pros are selling well with no real competition. Apple has zero incentive to release new iPad pros one year later.
 

The Game 161

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Dec 15, 2010
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Like I said in my original post, iPad Pros traditionally release every 2 years with the exception of 2018. The Pros are selling well with no real competition. Apple has zero incentive to release new iPad pros one year later.

Of course they do. They don’t want their main flagship chip on the iPad Pro line still to be an A12 chip when this years iPhones will have A15. They want Comparable chip to their latest M chips and across the line. A14X is supposed to be on that level of amazing speed and as said before they want to market that mini LED which they wanted out in 2020 but had to delay it due to understandable production issues.

The fact Gurman is saying it’s coming in March basically is enough for me to expect they are coming
 

DexBell

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Of course they do. They don’t want their main flagship chip on the iPad Pro line still to be an A12 chip when this years iPhones will have A15. They want Comparable chip to their latest M chips and across the line. A14X is supposed to be on that level of amazing speed and as said before they want to market that mini LED which they wanted out in 2020 but had to delay it due to understandable production issues.

The fact Gurman is saying it’s coming in March basically is enough for me to expect they are coming
Where does he say they are coming in March? I must have missed that...

and Apple doesn't care what chip is in the Pro. If they did, they would have put a 13 or 14 in last years models.
 

The Game 161

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Where does he say they are coming in March? I must have missed that...

and Apple doesn't care what chip is in the Pro. If they did, they would have put a 13 or 14 in last years models.
He replied to appletrack tweet who thought gurman meant no event in March and he replied stating he meant no event on 16th. If it wasn’t coming in March he wouldn’t have corrected him and of course they care that’s why the were focused to upgrade them in 2020 with A12Z even though the new models weren’t ready they knew they had to put something out

09886FB3-B972-4C32-8255-4E1CD4F954B4.jpeg
 

jb1280

macrumors 6502a
Jan 13, 2009
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Where does he say they are coming in March? I must have missed that...

and Apple doesn't care what chip is in the Pro. If they did, they would have put a 13 or 14 in last years models.

On what authority do you have that Apple doesn’t care what chip is in iPad Pro? The interviews that Apple execs gave following launch of A14 and iPad Air had an awful lot of verbal dancing on the performance question; and I doubt many liked having to say that iPad Air had better performance in some single threaded activities.

Your general logic is flawed on competition. Based on your logic, Apple didn’t need to put a better binned A12x in or LiDAR in the 2020 because the 2018 lacked competition. Also, Apple wouldn’t have had to do the 2018 rev, because there was little competition to the 2017.

Logic implies that Apple probably wants an A14x, 5G connectivity, and probably a new display technology in iPad Pro sooner rather than later.

iPad Pro is competing with iPad Air and the MacBook Air and the sooner the middle of the chip architecture is solved, the better from a market perspective.

Could iPad Pro be pushed until later in the year, sure. It’s more likely it’s coming sooner than later because honestly the situation isn’t really ideal.

In fact it’s really really less than ideal. They are selling iPad Pro pretty well, but purchase conversations are really muddled.

Should I buy the 11” Pro or Air? Well, the Pro is better in multi-threaded activities, and has better speakers, and ProMotion, FaceID, but it’s a couple hundred bucks more expensive, so not sure.

Okay, so I’ve settled that I want FaceID, and ProMotion, and the better speakers, but the 2020 reviews say that it’s not that much better than the 2018. So, do I just find a used 2018?

okay, well, the 2018 is hard to find now and out of warranty, but those MacBook Airs with M1 seem pretty great. I might lose the touch screen and better cameras, but maybe I can get that since it’s cheaper than an iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard...

I’m sure Apple wants to get back to a place where iPad Pro is unapologetically and unequivocally the best iPad to buy.
 

throAU

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2012
9,241
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Perth, Western Australia
Why do so many think we will see new iPad Pros in March?
Because it barely outperforms the current air at much more expense.

It needs to see either a price drop or a refresh imho. The 11" Pro currently makes zero sense and the 12.9" is expensive for what is essentially for most people is simply a screen upgrade vs. the current Air (whilst giving up touch-ID).

Irrespective of what Apple do or do not have coming, the current iPad Pro lineup is getting stale.
 

jb1280

macrumors 6502a
Jan 13, 2009
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The other big tell in terms of expectations are what Apple did with iPad Air and iPad in the fall.

They could have kept the A12 in iPad Air and just give the redesign of chassis, TouchID, and smart connector. They could have also not touched the $329 iPad. Instead they upgraded to A12 and A14. This gives a strong implication for substantive performance upgrade for Pro
 

throAU

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2012
9,241
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Perth, Western Australia
It wouldn't actually shock me to see Apple drop the 11" Pro entirely, the Air takes over that segment, and the 12.9" Pro gets the same processor as the MacBook Air. There's a lot of overlap now and it just doesn't make sense - I just don't see the user who would not be able to use an Air or 11" Pro interchangeably at the moment.

And for more strenuous/involved work the additional screen space makes sense. I somewhat regret my 10.5" purchase due to the size vs. pencil....
 
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Digitalguy

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Apr 15, 2019
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To add to previous posts, another reason is that iPadOS 15 should be a big upgrade, like 9, 11 and 13 (while 10, 12 and 14 were small upgrades). The first pro came precisely for IOS 9 and the 2018 was made in view of iPadOS, including USB C. Nobody knows what iPadoS 15 will bring, but having more cores and I am expecting also more RAM, will help with new features and/or new pro apps.
And last, while nobody here on Macruoomors thinks of Samsung as a competitor, the fact that they now have a big OLED 120hz tablet is not irrelevant to Apple IMO (and as a owner of that tablet too, I can say that while iPad pro is overall better, the S7+ is also more advaced in terms of file management and multitasking). So moving to mini-led first, and later to OLED once pro-motion is available on OLED (for now it wasn’t even available on the Samsung, since it has 120hz fixed, contrary to the smaller Tab S7 with IPS, which has variable refresh rate like promotion) is a move to stay on top of competitors also among those that aren’t in Apple ecosystem...
 
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AutomaticApple

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Nov 28, 2018
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Where are the Airtags they have sworn were coming any day now for years?
The pandemic screwed things up, but more people are going outside now. Apple is probably willing to release AirTags by now. Samsung has already released their own version. That’s definitely putting pressure on Apple. More code is continuously being adding to iOS suggesting an imminent launch. I could go on and on...
 
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jlgreer1

macrumors member
Apr 4, 2010
50
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Texas, United States
I need a larger screen iPad for my low vision. While shopping at BestBuy yesterday, The iPad Pro 12.9 was discounted to $999. The Samsung 12" Galaxy was $899. I prefer the aspect ratio of the iPad vs. the Samsung. The Samsung display is much like an Amazon Fire, very wide and more suited to movies than productivity apps.

In any case, for $100 dollar difference, the iPad Pro wins hands down.

I was just looking for comparison and ideas but I almost pulled the trigger.

The reduced pricing signals an impending upgrade IMHO.
 

GuruZac

macrumors 68040
Sep 9, 2015
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It doesn’t make sense for there not to be a 2021 iPad Pro launch, and soon. Apple isn’t dumb and knows there are lots of 2018 and older iPad Pro users ready to upgrade. Hell, if rumors are correct and we see miniLED, A14X, and 5G, I’m sure many 2020 iPad Pro users will upgrade too. As others have stated, the 2020 iPad Pro was a unique year in that it was the first time we saw incremental upgrades and essentially no CPU upgrade. The 2015 1st Gen iPad Pro had the A9X, 60Hz display, and the iPhone 6 camera module. The 2017 2nd iPad Pros got the A10X with 120Hz displays and iPhone 7 camera modules. The 3rd Gen iPad Pros got A12X and FaceID plus and all new form factor. the 2020 4th Gen iPad Pros got essentially a minor GPU bump, extra camera/LiDAR, and really, that’s it for all intents and purposes. I would argue the Magic Keyboard was the biggest release involving iPad Pros In 2020. 2021 makes a lot of sense, especially in March, because we are effectively talking about a nearly 2 and a half year time frame from the last major iPad Pro update.
 
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Deliro

macrumors 65816
Sep 20, 2011
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Why do so many think we will see new iPad Pros in March? iPad Pros release every two years. The 12.9 Pro saw releases in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2020. The only reason the smaller iPad Pro saw yearly releases was it going from 9.7 inch in 2016 to 10.5 inch in 2017 and finally 11 inch, where it only released in 2018 and 2020. These leakers are notorious for being wrong, they have been saying Airtags are coming any day for years now and they all said we would see a new iPad Mini last Oct, still waiting....Hopefully there will be a new iPad mini this year though.
Jon Prosser said so!
 
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Deliro

macrumors 65816
Sep 20, 2011
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Like I said in my original post, iPad Pros traditionally release every 2 years with the exception of 2018. The Pros are selling well with no real competition. Apple has zero incentive to release new iPad pros one year later.

especially since the 2020 handles everything thrown at it with ease. Mobile apps aren’t really pushing any thresholds.
 
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