New iPad Pros and iPad Airs could arrive on March 26, but one model may be missing
It felt like a long wait for new iPads, with the most recent ones hitting the market in 2022. But that wait could be almost over, as two separate sources suggest that the iPad Pro 2024 and the iPad Air 6 could arrive on March 26.
Chinese leak Directly digital and Chinese website ITHome have both pushed this date forward, as noted by MacRumorsalthough the latter mentions that cases for these tablets will apparently be sold on that date, and seems to be using this as evidence for the March 26 launch date.
Either way, even if these tablets are announced on March 26, they might not ship until a while later, as per Mark Gurman in his Power On Newsletter, these tablets ship with iPadOS 17.4, and that probably won’t be ready until late March, at which point it should be installed on these slates. That could mean that they won’t ship until the second half of April.
But that doesn’t rule out an announcement on March 26, with pre-orders perhaps opening shortly afterwards. Indeed, leaker Ross Young (via MacRumors) recently said that the iPad Pro 2024 will be announced in late March or early April and ship in April.
The iPad Pro 2024 in particular should also be worth the wait, with leaks suggesting it will be Apple’s first tablet with an OLED display, along with a powerful M3 chipset, a landscape-oriented front camera and perhaps even wireless charging via MagSafe.
A missing model
The iPad Air 6 could be a little more disappointing, however, as the main change was rumored to be the addition of a larger 12.9-inch model, but according to the leaker ShrimpAppleProthere will probably only be a 10.9-inch version, as we currently have.
That said, they’re basing this on the absence of activity around a 12.9-inch model being assembled in Vietnam, and they note that it’s still possible this larger model could be manufactured in China instead. So while we can’t rule it out yet – especially since this larger variant has been widely leaked – they don’t seem very convinced it’s happening.
Additionally, this source claims that the iPad Air 6 will have a landscape-oriented selfie camera, but will not see any major design changes otherwise. They also claim that of the five colors the iPad Air (2022) is available in (namely Space Gray, Starlight, Pink, Purple and Blue), pink or blue are unlikely to be offered with the new model – although presumably a new model will to be offered. shadow will take its place.
As always, we take all these leaks with a grain of salt, but somehow it sounds like we’ll probably see the iPad Pro 2024 and the iPad Air 6 pretty soon.