New Entry Level iPads and Apple Intelligence?

[Waragainstsleep]

So the current 2022 iPad does not have a chip that will support the full feature set of Apple Intelligence when it comes out later this year/next year.
I'm wondering if theres an imminent refresh coming for the entry level iPad and will it have an M1 or an A17 Pro CPU? Anyone heard any rumours or got any good guesses?

 

[Squiggles Chitter]

Apple realy likes to force people to buy their more expensive products. I think the iPad 11th gen will have the A15 or A16 bionic chip.

 

[Waragainstsleep]

They don't tend to like to release new products that can't take advantage of existing/imminent/announced features though.

 

[pappkristof]

A17 would be a huge advancement, but I doubt that they are going to make it entry level. It would make the iPad Air look a poor value for the price.

 

[Waragainstsleep]

A17 would be a huge advancement, but I doubt that they are going to make it entry level. It would make the iPad Air look a poor value for the price.

The Airs are M2 now though right? All the Macs are M2 or M3. Thats why I'm thinking the entry level iPad goes M1, use up any supply they have left or any fab capacity they haven't switched to newer nodes and they don't have to release a new product that doesn't support an announced OS feature.

 

[gwhizkids]

So the current 2022 iPad does not have a chip that will support the full feature set of Apple Intelligence when it comes out later this year/next year.
I'm wondering if theres an imminent refresh coming for the entry level iPad and will it have an M1 or an A17 Pro CPU? Anyone heard any rumours or got any good guesses?

No imminent refresh. Apple just announced its latest lineup of iPads in May. I wouldn’t look for anything new until at least March 2025 at the earliest.

 

[Isengardtom]

Some think the iPad 11 might get a chip that can handle it but at the price tag of the iPad 10 before the drop 2 months ago while the iPad 10 remains as the cheaper one

 

[Torty]

8GB and with a performance of at least M1/A17 sounds nice for the budget iPad.

 

[Squiggles Chitter]

8GB and with a performance of at least M1/A17 sounds nice for the budget iPad.

The ipad 10 has four gigs of ram. the 4 ipads before it had 3. I think 8 gigs of ram is wayyyyyyyy to optimistic for the basline ipad any time soon

 

[Shirasaki]

The entry level iPad is entry level for a reason: it may not have all the features higher end devices enjoy, and such omission is not limited to hardware. Besides, if entry level iPad got M1, what would iPad mini get? M2? That doesn’t make much sense. Also, having too many devices on M1 means software support cut would be more brutal some 3-4 years from now (Only relevant to customer tbh).

Let’s also not forget that Apple Artificial Intelligence is well in its infancy. Why not let pro users beta test it before the masses and price conscious enjoy them in a more complete form?

 

[Waragainstsleep]

I see it as too important a feature tbh. Restricting fancy cameras or video codecs, dynamic islands and so on is just another way to differentiate product tiers but if Apple wants to become a leader in AI, and I believe they do, they need Intelligence to get into the hands of as many users as possible as fast as possible.

The whole iPad lineup makes little sense to me. The only reason the iPad Mini has a higher spec than the regular iPad is because they don't want to reduce the price point further. I don't really see the point of the iPad Air any more.

Why not just have small, medium & Pro?

Maybe it'll be an A17 instead of the M1, but I don't see them releasing any more new products that can't run the AI. Not even the next iPhone SE.