Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo sketches the profile of the next iPad Pro expected to debut in 2022: here's what we know so far
The esteemed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is back to talk, and when it comes to Apple, he usually makes few wrong predictions. He did so to investors to whom he explained how, according to his sources in Cupertino, they plan to give more value to the smaller iPad Pro, the one with 11-inch display whose debut will take place in 2022.
Last April Apple updated the iPad Pro range, and among the most interesting innovations was the powerful Apple M1 chip that is also used in MacBooks and Mac minis and the adoption of the screen with mini LED technology. This last novelty, however, concerned only the variant with a 12.9-inch display, therefore the most expensive of the entire iPad range, and some were disappointed by the fact that the other variant, however "Pro" in the name, was excluded. Apple's choice may have been somewhat forced by two elements, the production difficulties inherent in a recent display evolution such as mini-LED technology and the cost, which would be higher than what is needed for an OLED screen.
Mini LED display on iPad Pro 11"
Ming-Chi Kuo, however, has let investors know - and consequently the world, since MacRumors colleagues have managed to get their hands on the note - that Apple is considering the possibility of extending the mini LED technology to the entire iPad Pro range, including the "economic" variant with 11-inch display.
Evidently something is moving in the direction of a more extensive use of mini LED technology, whose use has been held back both by the semiconductor crisis that insists on the pandemic technological landscape, and by the predictable production difficulties that come with any new technology, not to mention the high production costs that only drop as production increases.
The intersection of all the factors that influence the spread of mini LED technology then could be more favorable, and would be the basis of Apple's willingness to introduce mini LED displays first on the new MacBook Pro expected by the end of the year and a few months later on 11-inch iPad Pro. In this sense, according to the well-informed, Apple's allocations to accelerate the production of mini LED panels have also increased, with as much as $200 million allocated recently to the MacBook Pro alone.
The other novelties of iPad Pro 2022
Mini LED displays aside, according to Kuo are false the rumors that the iPad Pro 2022 would have larger displays, 14 or 16 inches: the sizes will remain the current ones, 11 and 12.9 inches. According to Bloomberg's report, Apple is reportedly testing a glass surface for the rear of the iPad Pro so that it can introduce wireless charging, which is incompatible with the current aluminum.