The May Apple keynote, entitled “Let Loose”, is now upon us: the appointment is set for Tuesday 8 May, at 4pm Italian time.
The next few hours will not be one of the usual Bitten Apple events: Apple itself has defined the conference as a “special event”. On the other hand, with the WWDC keynote now upon us – the event for developers will be held from 10 to 14 June – curiosity around the May announcements is sky high: while a report reveals which products will not be announced at the event “Let Loose”, there are still many doubts surrounding the next lineup of the Cupertino giant. So let’s try to take stock of the situation on the rumors, leaks and indiscretions surrounding the plans for the immediate future of the Bitten Apple: which products will be launched in the next few hours? Will Apple focus only on new hardware or will there also be room for software and, above all, for AI?
The new iPads are arriving!
The “Let Loose” event will almost certainly be dedicated to iPads, since all the most authoritative sources in the sector point in that direction. Even the keynote logo, inside which we can clearly see an Apple Pencil, provides very strong clues about the devices that will be the protagonists of the conference.
At this point, however, we need to understand which iPads will be presented in May and which ones will have to wait longer. To make careful predictions, we can look at the launch dates of the latest Cupertino tablets, remembering that their life cycles rarely exceed 18-24 months. The iPad Pro M2 was launched via press release in October 2022, alongside the iPad 10, while the 2022 iPad Air was presented in April two years ago. Finally, the iPad Mini 6 was released on September 24, 2021. On this basis, some might hypothesize that Apple is ready for a major overall refresh for its tablet line, most of which are now at the end of their lives (or even beyond its “expiration date”, as in the case of the iPad Mini). Interesting option, but it seems that the company will not proceed with a total renewal during tomorrow’s conference. On the contrary, according to what Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman reports, Apple will focus on the iPad Pro and iPad Air, while the iPad 11 and iPad Mini 7 will arrive later in 2024, perhaps between September and October.
Trusting the speculations of the most reliable expert in the Apple world on the market, therefore, we can hypothesize that Tim Cook and associates will launch at least two iPads and related accessories in the next few hours. There are many rumors surrounding the new generation iPad Pro: the most popular suggests that these will be the first Apple tablets equipped with OLED screens, which will have an 11″ and 13″ diagonal (there will be two models, as always). The dimensions will be 249.70 x 177.51 mm for the 11″ model and 281.58 x 215.53 mm for the 13″ model respectively. These will also be the thinnest iPad Pros ever, with a thickness of just 5.1 millimeters for both models (in comparison, the iPad Pro M2 fluctuates between 5.9 and 6.4 millimeters, depending on the model) .
Furthermore, it seems that Apple will significantly review the design of the device, integrating the selfie camera on the long side of the tablet for the first time, instead of on the short one. Under the hood, the most recent rumors say that the Cupertino giant will implement an M4 SoC, anticipating the launch of the first M4 Macbooks by several months (scheduled for the end of this year). It’s difficult to say whether these latest rumors are correct or not: for months, in fact, the OLED iPad Pros have been associated with the M3 chips, and this sudden jump to the M4 a few days after launch smacks of a bit of a blunder. Instead, it seems that the prices of the new generation iPad Pro will be roughly in line with those of the devices already on the market: Apple, in fact, would have managed to significantly reduce the cost of OLED screens, avoiding an increase in costs for end users.
As for the new generation iPad Air, the renderings here too provide a lot of interesting information.
Also in this case, the selfie camera will be moved to the long side of the device, which could therefore have a more professional look and thinner edges. Furthermore, again according to the alleged renderings, the chassis will be made of aluminum and the cameras will become two, complete with a pill housing similar to that of the iPhone There will be no change to the display, however: OLED panels will remain exclusive to the iPad Pro, while the Air models will be limited to LCD screens. The big news, from this point of view, will be the division into two of Cupertino’s “Air” tablet lineup: alongside the traditional model, with a 10.9″ diagonal, a variant with a 12.9″ screen will also be added , which has also been much talked about in recent months. Nothing is yet known about the chip implemented under the body of these two devices: one possibility is that they use an Apple A17 Bionic SoC, or a weakened version of the A17 Pro SoC of the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max; the other, however, is that they too can adopt an M series Apple Silicon CPU. In this second case, however, it remains to be seen whether Cupertino opted for a basic M3 chip, in line with what has already happened for the iPad Air M1, or whether we will move directly to the most recent M4 chip – assuming that the latter is truly launched in the next few hours.
Apple Vision Pro arriva in Europa?
Alongside these devices, which are expected to make up the lion’s share of the event, Apple could launch at least a couple of new accessories for its devices. The first should be the third generation Apple Pencil, which should feature a slightly different design than the current model, greater touch precision and an overhaul of the physical buttons and integrated gestures. However, don’t expect a far-reaching refresh, also because Apple re-launched the second generation Pencil in October, when it adapted its devices to the USB-C standard imposed by the European Union.
More interesting should be the new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro, which should be created on the model of the keyboards already available for iMacs (and already mounted on Macbooks): the device should also be equipped with an aluminum rear panel, and not in plastic, giving the tablet and keyboard combo a look very similar to that of a high-end Macbook. Cupertino’s aim would be to appeal to professionals and creatives who want to combine the power of a laptop with the versatility of a tablet with a large touchscreen. Obviously, it remains to be seen whether iPadOS will be able to keep up with the Bitten Apple’s ambitions: to find out, however, we will have to wait for WWDC, an event during which Apple is expected to present the biggest improvement ever for the operating system of its tablets. It therefore goes without saying that, on the software side, the May event will be decidedly sparse.
But what will be the “one more thing” of the “Let Loose” keynote? Probably Apple Vision Pro (again). There are no certainties in this regard, but the chances that the conference will also be the setting for the European launch of Apple Vision Pro are quite high. Let it be clear, however, that by “European launch” we are certainly not talking about the entire Old Continent: on the contrary, the first markets to receive the viewer should be those of Great Britain, France and Germany. Italy excluded, at least for the moment, it seems.
But what does Vision Pro have to do with an event dedicated to the new iPads? Nothing, obviously. However, it is now known that Cupertino is pushing for the viewer to arrive in Europe and Asia before WWDC, at least for a couple of reasons. The first is that Apple Vision Pro is apparently selling little in America and arriving at the developer event with “reinforced” sales data from new markets could convince many more studios to convert their apps for the device, perhaps pushing giants of the caliber of Spotify , YouTube and Netflix to launch ports of their services. Secondly, getting the device into the hands of the European public (and therefore European developers) before WWDC should convince them to attend the convention en masse, where Apple could then teach them to convert their apps for Vision Pro, consolidating the the viewer’s current software portfolio.