Rumor mills have been significantly quiet about the iPad Pro, Apple's purported large-size tablet-laptop hybrid. But according to Taiwan-based publication Digitimes, the new offering is slated for release in mid-November.
According to 9to5mac, the said release schedule totally makes sense. Looking back into its release patterns, the iPhone maker always tends to announce new iPad iterations around October, shortly before they hit the shelves.
The publication cites an unnamed supplier chain, which is said to start supplying components for the humongous tablet starting late September, and Foxconn Electronics (aka Hon Hai Precision Industry) was named the manufacturer of the iPad Pro, the one to put the device together.
The site adds that there will only be limited number of units to be made available during the initial release of the device as Apple is said to be unsure and unable to estimate the users' demand for the machine that's basically starting a brand new lineup for the titanic Cupertino tech firm.
The low volume of orders, Digitimes explains, is also dictated by the weakening demand for tablets and iPads and the prevalence of 5-inch smartphones. So with the iPad Pro, Apple is reportedly making sure that it won't overproduce iPad Pro units. Better to sell them all out than to overstock.
According to Phone Arena, Apple started developing an iPad Pro type of product back in 2013. There was poor demand for that kind of machine, although it now seems the company is ready to show it off.
The iPad Pro is rumored to come with a 12.9-inch (2048 x 2732 pixel) display at 264 ppi, the same as the iPad Air 2. Other rumored features include pressure sensitivity, Touch ID, Force Touch, a USB Type-C port, and a built-in NFC chip. It is also expected to offer 2 GB of RAM and an A9 processor for ultimate computing power.
While Apple has yet to confirm the existence of the iPad Pro, a piece of evidence mined in the iOS 9 beta suggests that Apple will indeed introduce it soon. Citing iPhone software developer Steven Troughton-Smith, Macrumors reports that the iOS 9 keyboard can scale to a larger size with repositioned keys. The transforming iPad keyboard is said to cater to the enormous size of the iPad Pro.
