Apple may have a busy March with a rumored larger iPad Air, OLED iPad Pros, and new Macs

iPad Pro

The end of the winter may herald hardware refreshes for Apple, with a new report from the industry's most prolific leaker predicting the long-rumored larger iPad Air and refreshed MacBook Air models will hit store shelves by the end of March 2024.

To combat sales doldrums for Mac and iPad, Apple is rumored to be prepping many new releases before the first calendar quarter of 2024 ends. On tap are allegedly a larger iPad Air, new iPad Pros with OLED screens, and a New MacBook Air model, presumably with M3 processor.

New iPad Air with larger screen

On tap for March 2024 is said to be a 12.9-inch iPad Air, matching the size of the current largest iPad Pro. As previously reported, four models are said to be in the works. Two models are for the existing size, and two for the larger 12.9-inch size.

The larger iPad Air rumor isn't new and has been hinted at for over a year. It was once expected to debut in October 2023, but that obviously didn't pan out.

iPad Pro with OLED

Perhaps the most common iPad Pro rumor is the shift to OLED displays. The new models are expected to arrive at the same time as the 12.9-inch iPad Air. They are expected to finally get that OLED screen and the M3 processor that came in October.

No size changes are expected. As with the two iPad Air sizes, four models are also being prepared.

In early 2023, rumors were indicating that Apple intended to update the iPad Pro lineup with new display technology. A report in July said that the production of the 11-inch and 13-inch OLED iPads, which mark the first use of OLED technology in the Apple iPad series, will start in the first quarter of 2024.

A new Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard is rumored to arrive at the same time as well. The new Magic Keyboard is rumored to be aluminum-clad versus the existing material.

MacBook Air with M3

There isn't much said about the new MacBook Air in Wednesday's report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. They are said to be codenamed J613 and J615 and come in the same design, with a boost from the M3 processor.

Later in 2024

The Apple Vision Pro is still on track for early 2024, but no date has yet been announced.

Touched on in Wednesday's report is a forthcoming Apple Watch with blood pressure sensing. Also rumored is a refresh to the iPad mini, a new low-end iPad, and non-Pro AirPods with USB-C charging.

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11 Comments

retrogusto

said about 4 months ago

My two big hopes for the next iPad Pro, neither of which seems unreasonable: front camera positioned for landscape orientation, as seen on the most recent new iPad model, and rounded edges, as seen on the most recent iPhones.

tht

said about 4 months ago

How they price the iPA13 will be interesting.

$600 iPA11 64GB M2 LCD
$800 iPA13 64GB M2 LCD
$900 iPP11 128GB M3 OLED
$1200 iPP13 128GB M3 OLED

The OLED has to be adding at least $100 to the prior iPP price tiers. Then there is the juxtasposition of the MBA13 w/M3 for $1100 and LCD. You could get an iPP with OLED for the same price as an MBA? Tough choice. If Apple enable unlimited multitasking, unlimited windows and Terminal.app on iPadOS, I could get by with an iPP13 as my work computer, but they aren't going to do that. So tough choice.

Then, the iPA models will surely be limited to 256GB or 512GB of storage. How many people upsell to the iPP models will determine how healthy the market of high end iPad users is. I think I'm all in on a 16GB RAM model, which probably means iPP13 1TB.

danox

said about 4 months ago

tht said:

How they price the iPA13 will be interesting.

$600 iPA11 64GB M2 LCD
$800 iPA13 64GB M2 LCD
$900 iPP11 128GB M3 OLED
$1200 iPP13 128GB M3 OLED

The OLED has to be adding at least $100 to the prior iPP price tiers. Then there is the juxtasposition of the MBA13 w/M3 for $1100 and LCD. You could get an iPP with OLED for the same price as an MBA? Tough choice. If Apple enable unlimited multitasking, unlimited windows and Terminal.app on iPadOS, I could get by with an iPP13 as my work computer, but they aren't going to do that. So tough choice.

Then, the iPA models will surely be limited to 256GB or 512GB of storage. How many people upsell to the iPP models will determine how healthy the market of high end iPad users is. I think I'm all in on a 16GB RAM model, which probably means iPP13 1TB.

Apple is currently going thru a mini memory gate with their low end Pro MacBook laptop, 64gb and 128gb might not be enough storage space also the pricing might be a little low for M2 and M3 SOC's. Any one of them would be a great deal however, 5-7 years of use easy. I have a four year old iPad Pro 12.9 and it shows no signs of going anywhere for at least 3 more years.

tht

said about 4 months ago

danox said:

tht said:

How they price the iPA13 will be interesting.

$600 iPA11 64GB M2 LCD
$800 iPA13 64GB M2 LCD
$900 iPP11 128GB M3 OLED
$1200 iPP13 128GB M3 OLED

The OLED has to be adding at least $100 to the prior iPP price tiers. Then there is the juxtasposition of the MBA13 w/M3 for $1100 and LCD. You could get an iPP with OLED for the same price as an MBA? Tough choice. If Apple enable unlimited multitasking, unlimited windows and Terminal.app on iPadOS, I could get by with an iPP13 as my work computer, but they aren't going to do that. So tough choice.

Then, the iPA models will surely be limited to 256GB or 512GB of storage. How many people upsell to the iPP models will determine how healthy the market of high end iPad users is. I think I'm all in on a 16GB RAM model, which probably means iPP13 1TB.

Apple is currently going thru a mini memory gate with their low end Pro MacBook laptop, 64gb and 128gb might not be enough storage space also the pricing might be a little low for M2 and M3 SOC's. Any one of them would be a great deal however, 5-7 years of use easy. I have a four year old iPad Pro 12.9 and it shows no signs of going anywhere for at least 3 more years.

There's rationale to double the base storage tiers to 128GB for the iPA and 256 GB for iPP especially if Apple opens the spigot on Stage Manager and side loading. The regular iPad probably sticks to the 64 and 256 GB storage options.

Was hard for me to include 256 for the iPP because OLEDs are going to be expensive! An iPA13 M2 8GB 128GB at $800 is cheap! Apple doesn't do cheap. The MBA13 with M1 8GB 256GB, basically a 4 year old machine next year, is still being sold at $1000. How would something like that drop to $800? Some question for the MBA13 M2? How does it drop to $800? Hence, that convinced me that iPA models will start out at 64 GB storage.

The big differences between the MBA13 and iPA13 are basically battery capacity, a capacitive touch layer, keyboard, hinge, and a touch pad. That's maybe a $100 to $200 difference. So, if the iPA13 has 128GB, I think that means $900 price point, not $800. I think a lot of users will be fine with 64GB because it will just be a web browser and streaming media machine to them.