In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman warns that 2023 will be a “light year” for iPad releases… as in a year that will bring spec bumps, rather than astronomical leaps forward. Next year, however, will be a different matter, he says, with a “major revamp” on the way for the iPad Pro.
Spring 2024, according to Gurman, will bring “an updated design and OLED screens for the first time” to the iPad Pro range. This is big (and arguably overdue) news. Apple hasn’t significantly changed the Pro’s design since 2018, when it removed the Home button, squared off the edges, and curved the screen corners. If you’re not keeping track, that’s four generations in a row that the company has rolled out premium tablets that are largely indistinguishable.
We don’t know what the new design will look like, but previous rumors have suggested the addition of a glass back, which might in turn mean MagSafe wireless charging. It’s also possible that Apple will bump the Pro’s maximum screen size from the current 12.9 inches to something in the region of 14 or even 16 inches. Some think that would be a very bad idea, but it would certainly be interesting.
As for the OLED screen upgrade, that’s something that’s been expected for a while too. Colorful, high-contrast OLED screen tech arrived on Apple’s smartphones with the launch of the iPhone X way back in 2017 (and was offered, albeit in a much smaller form, on the Apple Watch two years before that) but still hasn’t appeared on even Apple’s most expensive tablets. Last month, however, a well-regarded display industry analyst suggested this might finally happen in 2024, which lines up with Gurman’s prediction.
Promising news for iPad Pro customers, then. But the coming year doesn’t look like being anywhere near as much fun. Regarding the standard iPad, the mini, and the iPad Air, Gurman says there are no major updates coming in 2023. And the iPad Pro “for sure isn’t getting anything of note this year.”
We’d love Gurman to be wrong about iPads in 2023, but he has a solid track record of predictions. In other words, strap in for a dull year and we’ll see you on the other side of the calendar.
