Apple continues to raise all the boats in its iPad fleet

Apple continues to invest in its iPad range

Apple doesn’t yet plan to upgrade its entry-level iPad with an M1 chip, though the next model will boast an A14 Bionic processor and a USB-C connection.

What is being claimed about entry-level iPad?

Apple is allegedly working on a new entry-level iPad that will offer several big improvements, though based on an iPhone A14 Bionic processor. Among other improvements, it will provide a Retina display at similar resolution to the iPad Air, though it won’t offer the same brightness and wide color gamut as the more expensive tablets in the Apple range. It will also have built-in 5G.

USB-C across every iPad

It is interesting also that the new device will reportedly have a USB-C connection.

It means that all Apple tablets will now use USB-C, which suggests the company is moving to accept recent EU law that will inside all mobile devices make use of the interconnect.

Speculation that Apple may now also move iPhones to the same standard is rife, though this may simply reflect contingency plans on the part of the company in the event it is forced to put USB-C in iPhones.

iPad, the tenth generation

This will be the tenth generation of the iPad and promises performance gains of around 30% in contrast to the current model. It is not known if Apple will maintain the $329 price for the device. The company will likely also upgrade its iPad Pro range this year, possibly with wireless charging and an M2 processor.

[Also read: With iPad OS 16, Apple asks, ‘what’s a computer’?]

We also can’t be sure if these iPads will be among the new models Apple plans to manufacture in Vietnam once they appear. The company sold three iPads for every Chromebook sold in Q1 22, a recent Canalys report said.

A limited window for education in 22-3

There’s little doubt that as the company sees Macs ascend in use across the enterprise it will want to position the iPad as the best-in-class competitor to Chromebooks, particularly in the all-important education purchasing season, which hints at a more imminent introduction than may be anticipated.

The education market is interesting, however, as the scale and volume of education deployments take place in a very short time as thousands of new students join up. That scale means education IT will already be planning or have planned this year’s orders, which itself implies Apple has only a limited window if it wants to use a far more powerful tenth generation iPad as a stick with which to attack Chromebook’s share of the education market. If I’m right, and Apple does have education in its sights, it’s reasonable to expect more news on these new iPads on this side of summer.

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