Here’s why this makes sense. The iPad Air is the closest iPad model to the iPad Pro. By offering a 12.9-inch iPad Air variant, buyers can get most of the features they want, the screen size they desire, and because the iPad Air (2024) will still use an LCD panel, the price will be much lower than the cost of the 12.9-inch OLED iPad Pro (2024). Both the iPad Pro (2024) and iPad Air (2024) will have a landscape-oriented FaceTime camera and upgraded chips (M2 for the iPad Air, M3 for the iPad Pro). We could see the new iPad Pro line feature support for MagSafe wireless charging.
A couple of weeks ago, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said to expect new iPad models soon
Gurman noted in the newsletter that inventory levels of the most recent iPad Air (2022) have been declining in retail stores as shipments of the model are cut significantly. This is something that Apple typically does prior to the release of an upgraded device. Shipments of the iPad Pro have not been reduced which could indicate that Apple has a lot of inventory to get rid of, or it could signal that the company plans to keep the iPad Pro (2022) tablets as a lower-priced option after the OLED units launch.
Apple isn’t hosting a big event to mark the introduction of the new iPads and it will instead simply issue a press release to make the announcement.