Apple's new iPad products are exposed across the board: the screen chips have been greatly upgraded, and the price is not cheap
Since the release of the original iPad in 2010, Apple's tablet lineup has been updated basically every year, but this year, it broke that convention.
Earlier, Apple released its financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023, and CEO Tim Cook confirmed in a subsequent conference call that there will be no new iPad sales this year. Although the iPad will be "discontinued" in 2023, it has been confirmed that this product line will receive major changes in 2024.
(Source: MacRumors)
Tianfeng International analyst Ming-Chi Kuo released the 2024 iPad forecast report, a total of four iPads will have new successors next year, of which iPad Air will usher in a new version, and iPad Pro will also bring a new display design. In the past, the iPad has been updated every year, although the upgrade is not large, but it will also become the first choice of many old users, and the absence of the new iPad this year has also made many users feel very anxious.
Do you want to be a "wait party" and look forward to the arrival of the newer iPad, or do you simply buy it early and enjoy it early, firmly believing that Apple can't squeeze out anything new?
Blockbuster update, iPad enters the next stage
Judging from the forecast report, there will be some major changes in the iPad family in 2024, especially the iPad Air and iPad Pro.
The iPad Air will be updated with a 12.9-inch version of the display panel that will be replaced by an Oxide backplate instead of an a-Si backplane, the same technology used in the 11-inch iPad Pro.
At present, there are three main processes for display backplanes, namely a-Si, LTPS and Oxide, and the manufacturing cost increases sequentially. Oxide has the advantage of higher electron mobility and better PPI performance, and is often used on high-definition display substrates such as MiniLED. However, the new iPad Air will still use LCD substrate and will not choose MiniLED.
(Source: MacRumors)
Both the 10.9-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Air will be equipped with the latest Apple M3 chip, and the storage solution will most likely eliminate the very embarrassing 64GB, starting at 128GB. Obviously, the iPad Air has taken another step forward in positioning itself as a productivity tool.
In addition to the iPad Air, the iPad Pro has also ushered in a more significant update.
As we all know, iPad Pro is divided into two versions: 11 inches and 12.9 inches, in addition to size and weight, the biggest difference is the display materials of the two, the former is an ordinary LCD panel, while the latter is a more advanced MiniLED. According to the official website, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro has a peak brightness of 1,600 nits, while the 11-inch version is only 600 nits.
The next-generation iPad Pro will replace the entire line with OLED panels, which means that there will no longer be a significant difference between the two sizes in terms of display effect, and OLED will be better than MiniLED in power consumption control, and the battery life and extreme performance duration will be increased.
In terms of performance, iPad Pro, as Apple's top tablet product, will naturally choose the Apple M3 chip, but as for whether it is possible to carry the Apple M3 Pro/Max chip with a more obvious performance improvement, it still depends on the final release results.
(Source: 9to5Mac)
In fact, when the iPad Air also has a large version, the positioning between it and the iPad Pro has become more and more blurred, although the former will still be deliberately weakened in parts such as image and high refresh rate, but the actual user experience is already quite good. In order to widen the gap between the iPad Air and the iPad Pro, Apple is very likely to increase the price of the iPad Pro to achieve a balance between the two products.
The iPad 11 and iPad mini 7th generation will be launched later next year, and since both products have unique market positioning, they will only improve in the performance section. Considering that the seventh generation of the iPad mini will only be released in the fourth quarter of 2024, it is still very likely that it will be equipped with the A17 chip, and it may even be a full-blooded version of the A17 Pro, which can also make it perform better in gaming and entertainment.
After optimization, the positioning of various products in the iPad family will also become clearer, especially after the large-size iPad Air comes out, which may help Apple continue to develop the market for large-screen enthusiasts. But in this way, there are more parts that consumers need to consider before buying an iPad.
The performance pressure is heavy, and the iPad needs more new highlights?
Apple's financial report for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023 shows that iPad revenue for the quarter was $6.443 billion, compared with $7.174 billion in the same period last year, a decrease of 10.2%.
It is not difficult to see that the iPad has also encountered a market crisis.
The iPad will be "stopped" in 2023, which happens to give Apple enough time to rethink the positioning and development direction of various iPad products, at least, there will be no more products like the 10th-generation iPad that are disappointed in pricing and positioning.
In the forecast report, the most anticipated is the iPad Air. Since the debut of the fifth-generation iPad Air, this product line has changed from the original "extremely thin and light" to a productivity tool that takes into account both performance and portability, and combined with the entry-level iPad has risen in price to 3599 yuan, the cost performance of iPad Air has suddenly become higher.
The next-generation iPad Air will be mass-produced in the first quarter of 2024, and the release time will most likely be in the spring, ahead of the iPad Pro series with the new Apple M3 chip. Compared with the M1 chip used in the previous generation iPad Air, the performance core has been increased by 30%, the graphics performance has been increased by 65%, and the support of the neural network has also been added, making it more powerful AI computing power.
(Source: 9to5Mac)
Of course, compared with Apple M1, Apple M3 is mainly optimized in terms of energy consumption, which is a great advantage for the iPad Air, which is thin and light. The newly debuted iPad Air 12.9-inch has a better display effect and more space for heat dissipation, and it is expected that the actual experience will be greatly improved.
In addition to changing the display substrate to OLED, the new iPad Pro will also make changes to the exterior design. Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at Tianfeng International, also stressed that the accessories of the new iPad Pro will not be compatible with the previous generation, hinting at some adjustments to the interface.
OLED debuted on the iPad Pro, a change that consumers have been waiting for for a long time. This is not to say that Apple spent hundreds of millions to buildMiniLED is not good, but the power consumption is too high, the data shows that the previous generation iPad ProMiniLED display, peak power consumption can soar to8W, you must know that the processor of the vast majority of mobile platforms is only between 4-6W.
Combined with the optimization of power consumption of the Apple M3 chip and the OLED display substrate, the battery life and heating performance of the next-generation iPad Pro are very exciting.
The main upgrade direction of the seventh-generation iPad mini is the improvement of performance, after all, Apple has cooperated with many game companies, and 3A game masterpieces have appeared in turn, and the iPad mini, which focuses on the field of games, naturally needs to be given preferential treatment in performance. Another upgrade point worth looking forward to is the optimization of the storage solution, such as 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, which are the most anticipated parts of the gamer.
(Source: MacRumors)
It is true that Apple took the initiative to "withdraw" from the parity market by raising prices, leaving the stalls below 3000 yuan to the Android camp, but such a plan did not make it achieve good results in 2023, in the final analysis, it is still a lack of product power. In the field of tablet computers, iPad is already a very expensive product, priced at 3599 yuan of the tenth generation of iPad, still using a thousand-yuan machine does not use a non-fully fitting screen, it is inevitable that people will be disappointed.
Most of the information mentioned in the breaking news is still iPad Air and iPad Pro, perhaps, the title of "King of Cost Performance" has also been taken off from the entry-level iPad and taken over by other products.
The positioning has changed greatly, who is the king of the new iPad cost performance
After the release of the 10th generation iPad, many users also found a "weird" thing.
The 256GB version of the 10th-generation iPad is priced at the same price as the 64GB version of the fifth-generation iPad Air, which is 4799 yuan, but the latter not only has the Apple M1 chip, but also offers a better display and a lighter body. In the forecast report, the 12.9-inch iPad Air will debut, which may succeed in attracting the attention of large-screen enthusiasts.
iPad Air and iPad Pro are both Apple M3 chips, and there is basically no difference in performance, the biggest difference is the display material and image system. For the vast majority of users, the performance of iPad Air has been fully able to cope with the needs of daily entertainment, light office, etc., and now, iPad Air also has a large-size version, and users who pursue a large display size finally have a choice other than iPad Pro.
In terms of price difference, the iPad Air 12.9-inch version is likely to be set at about 6500 yuan, while the iPad Pro, which is also a large size, will cost nearly 10,000 yuan. In this way, iPad Air is actually the first choice for users who are looking for value for money.
(Source: Apple)
With the iPad Pro fully upgraded to OLED materials, the 11-inch version of the iPad Pro will also have a great improvement in visual effects, and compared with the iPad Air, it has more powerful audio hardware and stronger speaker performance.
It has to be said that Apple's price plan for the iPad pushes each product to the limit, just like the 10th generation iPad and the 5th generation iPad Air, the price is the same, but the former has more storage capacity and the latter has stronger performance. Therefore, the demand for "cost performance" falls on the iPad product line, and it is still difficult to cover it completely.
But in the final analysis, the biggest role of the iPad is to meet the needs of entertainment and light office, and the next generation of iPad Air is powerful and comprehensive enough, and even provides a 12.9-inch large-screen version, which should be called the "king of cost performance" for most consumers.
In any case, the unexpected absence of the iPad in 2023 has made many old users regret. In the past year, Apple can also stop and think about why the iPad has suffered a "Waterloo" in the tablet market, so as to have more ideas to create better and more reasonable products for users.