Primed for disappointment, Paul Therrott writes:
Apple this morning announced a new 10.5-inch iPad Air, which oddly doesn’t replace the 9.7-inch iPad, and a new iPad Mini. Both products support Apple Pencil, but it’s the old version, not the one that shipped along with the new iPad Pros. Both also feature dated designs with big bezels.
My take: March 25 is Showtime, not hardware time.
Apple press release: All-new iPad Air and iPad mini deliver dramatic power and capability
I chuckle when pundits predict when Apple will launch a foldable iPhone. I may be proven wrong, but, a foldable phone seems like a very expensive and clumsy way to get a tablet sized screen. If you’re an App developer, Samsung and Huawei compete in different countries, which hurts the ROI for customizing Apps for the bigger screen.
1) The price sensitive segment of Apple’s customer base has a slower upgrade cycle. Hence this long overdue upgrade will do well, even if analysts pay no attention.
2) The upgrade removes to low-end A-series chipsets from the product line, setting up eventual EOL of the older models. At the same time, the powerful chips facilitate more App revenue.
3) One more incremental advance of the iOS ecosystem.