Earlier this morning, Tim Cook teased that “there’s something in the Air”, a phrase that alluded to the slogan for the original MacBook Air, so this indicates that we’d see the refreshed MacBook Airs with M4 chips get introduced in a few days, similar to how Apple teased the iPhone 16e just days ahead of its introduction.
So what does this mean for the iPad? According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, we should see upcoming iPad models really soon in the coming weeks. So don’t expect other product announcements besides the M4 MacBook Air for this week. One possible date of announcement is March 19 because if you think about it:
- Apple introduced the iPhone 16e on February 19, and
- Apple will likely introduce the MacBook Air on March 5, so this could mean a two-week gap between each product announcements, so this leaves
- March 19 for the upcoming iPad models as a possibility if Apple continues to go with this route.
Apple just updated the iPad mini with the A17 Pro chip back in October, and we shouldn’t expect a refresh to the iPad Pro soon until Apple debuts the M5 chip. So this leaves just the entry-level iPad and the iPad Air. The iPad Air is expected to feature the M3 chip to avoid cannibalization with the iPad Pro; however, the base iPad’s incoming update is a bit interesting due to several conflicting reports on which chip Apple will use for that iPad. Some speculate that the iPad could feature the A16 chip while others speculate the A17 Pro chip to support Apple Intelligence. We may see Apple offering two variants of the base iPad similar to the AirPods 4. Only time will tell. We could also see a refreshed Magic Keyboard that could work with both of those iPads as well as the C1 modem making its way to those models as well.
