iPad Pro In 2014?
Macworld’s Martyn Casserly notes tht Industry analyst and Apple-watcher Mich-Chi Kuo has predicted that Apple will release a full size iPad with 30-40% higher pixel density in 2014, and because Mr. Kuo has a good track record with Apple products, he should certainly be taken seriously.
Casserly also wonders why Apple continues to let the iPad lag behind in camera resolution. stuck at 5 megaixels while even the iPhone 4s has an 8-megapixel camera. Being a fan of iPad photography myself, I hope he’s right in thinking that Apple may finally bring the iPad camera up to spec in the next iteration.
Then there’s the reports out of Asia that Apple are testing a 12.9in iPad slated for release early in 2014, although the role this kind of device would play in still unclear. Casserly thinks that a mission to take on ultrabooks and small notebooks makes very little sense, since the MacBook Air was pretty much responsible for launching the Ultrabook category, and remains not only the gold standard, but one of the best priced thin and light notebooks available.
He suggests that education and enterprise markets are more likely the targets for a larger display iPad, and that perhaps the most exciting rumour is that this new tablet would become the iPad Pro — more of a productivity device that harnesses the simplicity of the traditional iPad, but opens up new possibilities due to a more capacious display.
He observes that for example if Apple allowed an increased amount of control via a bluetooth keyboard – such as switching between apps – then it could be a potential laptop replacement for those of us who find the normal iPad just too limiting when it comes to doing real work, although Microsoft has struggled to make a market impact with its Surface line of productivity tablets. “How ironic would it be,” Casserly says, “if Apple was the company to finally merge touch-based devices and the workplace?” — observing that if Apple could somehow manage to blend parts of the increasingly simplified UI of OSX with the touch centric world of iOS, then the iPad Pro could legitimately become a new class of device to lead us into the post-PC era for real.
I agree.
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