Mikey Campbell
A rumor out of East Asia on Monday claims mass production of Apple's "iPad Air 2" starts this month ahead of an October release, while the second-generation iPad mini with Retina display could be pushed back into 2015.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, Taiwan's Commercial Times reports Apple's iPad Air 2 is slated for release next month, but will not debut alongside a revamped iPad mini as some expected.
Instead of the usual two-device iPad launch, the publication claims Apple is looking to position the next-gen 7.9-inch iPad mini reveal for the first quarter of 2015. The timeline is a bit suspicious given Apple's most recent iPad release cycle, as well as informed reports pointing to a simultaneous release with the iPad Air 2.
Not much is known about the next-generation iPad Air, but the overall design is thought to remain largely unchanged based on supposed parts leaks. The second-gen version is thought to include Apple's Touch ID fingerprint recognition hardware, the new A8 system-on-chip and M8 motion coprocessor.
In addition to the iPad Air and iPad mini, the report goes on to say that a larger 12.9-inch "iPad Pro" will hit the production line sometime in quarter two, with a launch soon to follow. Apple has long been rumored to be working on a jumbo sized tablet and the most recent rumors are in line with an early 2015 debut.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
40 Comments
I hope the iPad Plus will be ready by this holiday season.
Yep, just like the 5.5” iPhone wouldn’t come out at the same time as the real one.
Eh, I’ll probably drop it eventually. And no, not ‘eventually’ as in ‘just like the 5.5” iPhone wouldn’t come out at the same time as the real one.’
My question is will Apple pull a big boner and deliver to us a iPad Air with only 1GB of RAM? To say I was disappointed with the iPhone release is an understatement. However RAM is even more critical in the iPad, if it comes with only 1GB I'd be pissed royally. So in this respect I'm expecting an A8X variant of this years processor. We really need the extra RAM. A 2GHz A8 would be nice too. As for the split debut, why would they do that. The only reason I could see is that they are gambling on an early 2015 source of 14 nm parts.
Apple will not put 2GB of RAM in an iOS device until they can get LPDDR4. I could be wrong but doubt it. iOS 8 fixed the tab refresh issues on my Air, I feel like 1GB is fine now. Not perfect, but not compromising performance seriously. My only complaint is that the iPhone 6 makes the Air look really dated, both from a screen aspect (display should be laminated to the cover glass by now) and from an asthetic aspect.
[quote name="TheWhiteFalcon" url="/t/182449/rumor-next-gen-ipad-air-to-debut-in-october-retina-ipad-mini-in-early-2015#post_2603742"]Apple will not put 2GB of RAM in an iOS device until they can get LPDDR4. I could be wrong but doubt it. iOS 8 fixed the tab refresh issues on my Air, I feel like 1GB is fine now. Not perfect, but not compromising performance seriously. My only complaint is that the iPhone 6 makes the Air look really dated, both from a screen aspect (display should be laminated to the cover glass by now) and from an asthetic aspect.[/quote] iOS 8 didn't fix it on my Air. If Safari performance isn't greatly improved on the new iPad I'll skip this generation. iPads need more ram. Or Apple needs to redesign Safari so it isn't such a dog on the iPad. Or both.