Per the latest newsletter from Mark Gurman, Apple will be upgrading every iPad in 2024. 2023 has been the first year in the product’s history that there were no hardware updates. It’s a little surprising, but as many people love to point out the “problem” with the iPad isn’t hardware, so I guess a year of is fine-ish. I figured that if Apple really wasn’t going to update hardware this year, then they would go a bit harder on the software side of things. I was partially correct. We did get a version of Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro in May. I hoped they would complete the trifecta and release a version of XCode for iPad this year. They technically still could, but it feels really unlikely they would drop such a bomb before the end of the year. If XCode for iPad is happening, and I think it is, WWDC is the most logical venue to announce it.

Back to the 2024 hardware updates….the only thing we’ve really heard any serious rumblings about is the redesign of the iPad Pro. Expected improvements are OLED displays, M3 SoCs, and a landscape oriented front facing camera. It would be nice if the Apple logo on the rear was rotated to landscape orientation as well. For the Air, Mini, and standard iPads, the only things that have been rumored are SoC updates. That’s fine…but I hope Apple takes the opportunity to re-orient the front camera on all of the larger iPads (I think it’s fine where it is on the iPad Mini). This part is wishful thinking, but I hope Apple rethinks its hardware segmentation strategy with the iPad line. The lowest end iPad should have an M1, full stop. Features like Stage Manager and external display support shouldn’t be reserved for the iPad Pro and iPad Air. These are features that would really help iPads complete with Chromebooks in education. The lineup should be:

Standard iPad and iPad mini – M1 SoC

iPad Air(s) – M2 SoC

iPad Pros – M3 SoC

Each iPad would remain one generation ahead of the one before it. I don’t think Apple will ever do this, but it makes a lot of sense.

Anywho, the rumors should get more interesting in 2024 in the lead up to the presumed spring event where at least the iPad Pro will get announced. Here’s hoping Apple shocks us with a 14 inch Pro in 2024 as well!