Apple’s financial report for the second quarter of 2021 showed that revenues from sales of Macs and iPads increased significantly compared to last year – Macs were up to $ 9.10 billion. (+ 70.1% year-over-year), iPads were close behind with $ 7.8 billion. (+ 78.9%).
So Apple has to think of ways to keep growth going, and one option could be iPads in giant sizes. Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman daydreamed of 14 “and even 16” iPads in his weekly Switch on newsletter. But it is more than wishful thinking.
According to Gurman, engineers and designers at Apple are investigating the possibilities for larger iPads. However, it will be a long dream as they will not arrive for several years.
Apple’s immediate concern is to complete the update of the iPad Pro series by 2022. Only the 12.9 “model, which was launched with a mini” LED screen, the 11 “, was missed due to lack of supply. These 14 ”and 16” mini-LED panels will also go to the new MacBooks expected later this year.
Once the supply chain for them gets on its feet, Apple could start thinking about increasing the capacity to also have enough panels for larger iPad pros. Or that step may never come – companies build prototypes to explore different options, only some of them are considered good enough to become real products.
The continued convergence of iPadOS and macOS and the switch to Apple M1 chipsets for both, as well as the introduction of the magic keyboard, have really blurred the lines between iPad Pros and MacBooks. However, the largest iPad Pro has a 12.9 ”screen, smaller than the smallest MacBook currently available (13.3”).
As Gurman points out, iPadOS still lags behind macOS in terms of app support and how it handles multitasking. The ability to run macOS apps on the iPad with freely changeable windows can really transform the Apple tablets.
