Sources: for 2024, Apple is planning the iPad Pro's first major upgrade since 2018, featuring an M3, an OLED screen, and a Magic Keyboard with a larger trackpad
Apple is working on a revamped iPad Pro for next year, aiming to shake up a tablet market that's deep in the doldrums.
Later roadmap reporting broadened the planned iPad update cycle to include larger iPad Air options, while pre-event coverage suggested the Pro’s chip plan could evolve beyond M3. That makes this report an early view of Apple’s effort to refresh its premium tablet tier.
First-order effects
Apple’s iPad Pro roadmap shifts toward a more visibly differentiated premium device, combining a new chip, OLED display, and a keyboard accessory designed for more trackpad use.
The planned overhaul gives existing Pro customers a clearer reason to defer purchases until the new model arrives, while concentrating near-term product attention on the high end of the iPad range.
Second-order effects
OLED and a more laptop-like keyboard raise the premium component and accessory content of the Pro, increasing the importance of whether the upgrade can support a higher-priced tablet proposition.
Rival premium-tablet makers face a sharper comparison on display quality and keyboard-led productivity; Apple’s broader planned iPad lineup refresh could also make model segmentation more consequential.
Third-order effects
If this approach holds, premium tablets will be differentiated less by annual spec updates and more by coordinated displays, silicon, and accessories that blur the boundary with laptops.
The later prospect of iPad Pro designs aligning with touch-screen laptops in Apple’s future product roadmap suggests the tablet–notebook divide may become a more important product-positioning question, though this report alone does not establish that outcome.
The trend: Apple is using higher-end components and productivity accessories to make premium tablets a more distinct computing category as the broader tablet market weakens.
Power On: Apple readies revamped iPad Pro for next year with M3 chip, OLED displays and a new Magic Keyboard with a larger trackpad https://www.bloomberg.com/...
The BIG standout feature on this new M3 iPad Pro coming in March/April 2024 will be the Hybrid Dual-layer OLED display. The main point of it is to offer excellent brightness which you usually can't get on OLED displays while getting rid of issues like Mini-LED's halo effect. 1/3
The thing that intrigues me is that we've heard murmurs about M3 coming out this fall, so what does that mean for Vision Pro launching early next year? Launch a $3500 device with “last gen chips”?
It'll essentially be the BEST of both worlds. Apple has been avoiding OLED for the simple reason that it can't get bright enough to show true HDR content. With dual OLED layers, they are stacked in tandem which essentially doubles brightness. We might even see 1600 nits! 2/3
Am I the only one who thinks this just doesn't sound that interesting? I mean they're all great changes. But the problem with the iPad isn't hardware. I wouldn't care if they didn't make new hardware for a few years and JUST put more resources into software.