Kuo posts his 2024 iPad forecast which includes a second larger-screened iPad Air،
2023 was a historic year in iPad history, even if it’s not the kind of history Apple wants to celebrate. For the first time, Apple has let a calendar year go by without releasing a new iPad model. But that makes 2024 a big year for Apple’s tablet lineup. Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple analyst at TF International, the man who knows what the soup of the day in the Cupertino cafeteria will be in two years,
posted a message on his expectations for the iPad next year.
Kuo writes that he expects Apple to upgrade existing iPad models and release an entirely new tablet next year. The analyst repeats something we have often talked about. Apple’s iPad shipments have declined recently as demand from people working from home (WFH) has fallen sharply since the end of the pandemic.
Kuo says we should expect two iPad Air tablets to be manufactured by Apple in the first quarter of 2024. One model will feature a 10.9-inch screen while a new, larger iPad Air tablet will be released. This unit will sport a 12.9-inch display featuring an Oxide backplane which is the same technology used on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro mini-LED. Although Kuo doesn’t specifically mention it, the new iPad Air models could both be powered by the M2 chipset, an upgrade to the M1 that runs the iPad Air (2022) tablet.
iPad Air will be upgraded and a new model with a larger screen will be added to the lineup
According to the analyst, later in the first quarter or during the second quarter, Apple will begin mass production of two updated iPad Pro models. Both will feature OLED displays, an improved form factor, and run with the powerful 3nm M3 chipset under the hood. While Apple had hoped to
start production of these tablets early in the first quarter, production issues with the OLED panels caused a delay. Kuo adds that the OLED displays will use the same LTPO backplane used on the
iPhone 15 Pro handsets.
Depending on how Apple prices the iPad Air
series, the price of the iPad Pro OLED tablets could be increased to keep the same price gap between the two lines. This would only be done, Kuo notes, if the price of the 10.9-inch iPad Air remained unchanged and the new 12.9-inch model was significantly more expensive than the smaller unit.
The analyst expects shipments of the new iPad Pro OLED tablets to reach 6 to 8 million units in 2024, which would be slightly lower than the shipments recorded by current iPad Pro models. Kuo attributes this to the possible price rise of OLED iPad Pro tablets and possible cannibalization by the new 12.9-inch iPad Air model.
Kuo also says that mass production of the new iPad mini has been postponed from the first quarter to the second half of next year, when the 11th generation iPad will also be manufactured.
The analyst forecasts shipments of 52 million to 54 million iPad units in 2024, compared to around 50 million tablets shipped in 2023 and 63 million in 2022.
