We saw four iPhone 15 models, the Apple Watch 9, and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 make their debuts last week, but it seems Apple may not be finished with new products this year – and the iPad mini 7 has been tipped to make an appearance before 2023 is out.
This comes from Taiwanese outlet DigiTimes (via MacRumors), a publication with close connections to sources inside Apple's supply chain partners. It has a better-than-average record at Apple product predictions, though not a perfect one.
In an article on market demand for tablets, DigiTimes mentions a "new small-size iPad" due to launch in the fourth quarter of the year, which sounds to us very much like a successor to the iPad mini 6 we got back in 2021.
This particular DigiTimes report doesn't give us any other real information about what to expect from the iPad mini 7, but we've got our own ideas on that. It'll clearly be faster than its predecessor, though perhaps not by much.
More to come in 2024
This isn't completely out of the blue. There has previously been chatter around a 2023 appearance for the iPad mini 7, and one leaker had suggested that the smaller slate would launch with the iPhone 15. That didn't happen, but we may not have much longer to wait.
Also, well-respected industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has gone on record as saying that an iPad mini 7 could ship by the end of 2023 or early in 2024. Perhaps Apple is keen to get the tablet out on sale in time for the holiday season.
An announcement could come any time in that fourth quarter window – October, November, or December – but we're thinking that we'll just get a press release from Apple rather than a full-on event at Cupertino headquarters.
And that may well be it for Apple for the calendar year: the next iPad Pros, complete with OLED displays and M3 chips, aren't expected until 2024. It also seems that the M3 Mac upgrades are going to be scheduled for 2024, as well.
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