Apple reported to be “just days away” from releasing an M2-based iPad Pro
Apple’s latest tablet will arrive with a bit less fanfare this time around.
Mark Gurman, writing over the weekend in his Power On newsletter:
“Apple Inc.’s next iPad Pro is arriving in a matter of days. The company is set to announce new 11-inch and 12.9-inch versions of the device, codenamed J617 and J620, that include the same M2 processor found in the latest MacBook Air.”
The last iPad Pro announcement came in April 2021 at Apple’s “Spring Loaded” event, alongside the redesigned M1-based iMac, the updated Apple TV 4K with its redesigned Siri Remote, and the long-anticipated announcement of AirTags. In a bit of a surprise to everyone, Apple brought the then-new M1 chip to the iPad Pro line.
Now that it’s established that the iPad Pro gets the same chip as the MacBook Air and iMac, it’s no surprise that the M2 is coming to the iPad Pro. Otherwise I’m in agreement with Gurman that this will be a relatively modest update. The iPad hardware team has been firing on all cylinders for years now. The fact that the form factor is rumored to continue relatively unchanged is a testament to the fact that Apple has found a long-lasting design for iPad similar to what it has with the MacBook Pro.
The arrival of this new iPad will come amidst a flutter of controversy surrounding Stage Manager, the controversial windowing system for iPadOS which has delayed the release of iPadOS 16 until sometime later this month. Unlike a lot of folks, I’m not worried about Stage Manager. If it takes Apple even longer to get it right, I think it’s worth further delays. Regardless, Apple must surely prefer to have a fully-functional Stage Manager ready for the arrival of this new iPad Pro. Given that, I expect Apple to ship iPadOS 16.1 and Stage Manager just prior to these new units arriving in stores, even if Stage Manager is still a little rough around the edges.
Sadly, it sounds as if these new iPads won’t be released via one of Apple’s special events. Instead, these will likely be released via press release. Given the timing of Gurman’s report, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were tomorrow, October 18, but Gurman himself didn’t make that claim. If so, I’ll be back on Wednesday to break down what else may be new.