The 2020 iPad Pro is expected to launch with a super-fast new processor, and today we're learning the next high-end Apple tablet may also get a cellular speed boost. This speculation comes from a pair of reports from the Taiwanese site DigiTimes, which gives us enough reason to believe a 5G iPad Pro is coming this fall.
Sleuthing on this comes from MacRumors, which is complicating the expected iPad Pro releases for this year. While we've been waiting on a model with a three-camera setup to arrive next month (March 2020), the site postulates that a 5G model with a faster A14X processor, arrives in the fall.
I'm slightly skeptical about this, as that seems like one-too-many new iPad Pros this year given Apple's usual release schedule. DigiTimes' sources claim that Apple's 5G "product roadmaps" center around new A-series chips, coming this fall to iPhones and iPads, that support the "sub-6GHz and mmWave specs."
The report is slightly muddied by a second quote claiming that Win Semi, "the sole fabricator" for the components connected to the Augmented Reality and Time of Flight technology that Apple wants to add to its cameras, could incorporate those components by the "second half of 2020."
DigiTimes' track record isn't perfect, but it often provides early insights from supply-chain sources that help us figure out what Apple's up to in advance. We heard rumblings of a 5G-compatible iPad Pro last year, and this round feels a little more concrete.
As I said in our products of the decade story, the iPad has a reputation for lasting forever, so shoppers may want to measure twice and purchase once, and wait for the holiday season to get this latest iPad Pro.
