The long-awaited iPad Pro 2022 is due “in a matter of days” according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in the latest issue of his Power On newsletter. This will be followed by another iPad, MacBook Pros, a Mac mini and a new version of Apple TV, the well-connected reporter says.
The timeframe confirms previous reports that Apple won’t be hosting a dedicated event for its new iPads, as invitations typically go out over a week in advance. Instead, the products will reportedly just appear on the website accompanied by a press release.
This appears to be because of the iterative nature of the change. “A slew of updates that amount to spec bumps or seen-before designs,” as Gurman puts it.
iPad Pro 2022 and iPad 2022
The new 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pros will “look similar to the pro model from last year” meaning the same flat-edge design will persist for a fourth-year running. That would mean it’s outlived the original pro tablet’s design that was only maintained for three generations.
On the inside, the biggest change will be the adoption of the same M2 chip used on the 2022 MacBook Air. This won’t offer the same transformational speed as last time around, with Gurman anticipating a performance boost of “nearly 20%”. But it will further cement the iPad Pro’s position as the most powerful tablet on the market by some margin, given the advantage Apple Silicon already has over mobile chips manufactured by Qualcomm.
In addition to the new iPad Pro, Gurman says that work continues on the basic 2022 iPad. With the addition of a USB-C port and flat design cues taken from the Pro models, the launch will be the “most significant update to that line in several years.”
No date is given for it, but without the deadline of an actual event, there’s no reason Apple can’t just update the store as and when things are ready for show time.
New MacBook Pros reportedly next month
Apple apparently isn’t done there, either. Gurman says that we can expect MacBook Pros in the near future, though he “wouldn’t expect them to be released alongside the iPad Pro.” November is the traditional month for Mac releases, and Gurman expects to see a 2022 Mac mini with M2 chips at the same time.
In addition, Gurman believes a new version of the Apple TV streaming box will also arrive. Apple TV 2022 will apparently see an upgrade to the A14 chip seen in the iPhone 12 and 4GB RAM. For comparison’s sake, the current model uses the A12 chip and 3GB RAM.
Again, Gurman isn’t expecting a dedicated event for any of these. “My belief is that Apple has eschewed another event because of the fairly ordinary nature of the announcements,” he writes.
Perhaps more importantly, he also believes the company is trying to avoid stream fatigue with plans for a suitably flashy launch event to accompany the Apple AR/VR headset when it arrives next year.
