Apple iPad fans might see an iPad mini 4 and a new iPad Air model launching this year if Apple sticks to its plans of releasing new devices.
Much has been said about how Apple's previous releases, the iPad mini 3 and iPad Air 2, performed poorly as far as sales figures are concerned. For this reason, some have speculated that Apple may revamp the prices of its next batch of devices in an attempt to lure back customers.
Another speculation purports that the upcoming iPad mini 4 could just be the last "mini" model from Apple's lineup of 7.87-inch tablets. This could be attributed to the fact that since the iPad Pro is about to launch, the 9.7-inch iPad Air would serve as the "mini" tablet variant.
A recent report from Macotakara claimed the iPad mini 4 is but a smaller version of the iPad Air since it is purported to have the same specifications, such as an A8 processor, iSight rear camera of 8 megapixels and 802.11ac Wi-Fi.
"According to the industry, there is a high possibility that the iPad mini 4 that is rumored to be announced with the iPad Pro is a smaller version of [the] iPad Air 2," Macotakara said on its blog page. "Compared to [the] iPad Air, the height and width of [the] iPad Air 2 are the same and the thickness is 6.1mm. Similar to this, the iPad mini 4 compared to iPad mini 3 is said to have the same height and width and a thickness of 6.1mm."
A known industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities believes the same idea regarding the upcoming iPad mini 4 and claims that the tablet is in essence the iPad Air 2's miniature version.
Other purported specifications of the iPad mini 4 include a new speaker grill, a RAM of 2GB, Force Touch and Apple Pay support. It is also rumored to have the same design features as the iPad Air 2, which include the laminated display with an antireflective covering and the 6.1mm (0.24 inch) build. If all this is true, then the next iPad mini will be thinner than the previous iPad mini 3, which is 7.4mm (0.29 inch) thick.
The next iPad models may also feature a 32GB storage by default, which may sound appealing to customers who are keen on having devices with a larger storage capacity for keeping bigger apps and files. Apple previously released iPad mini tablets in storage variants of 16GB and 32GB.
Lastly, the next iPad mini is rumored to carry a cheaper price of $463, which is slightly lower than the iPad mini 3's $494 price tag.
Apple, however, is yet to make an official statement on the next iPad mini tablet.
Photo: Maurizio Pesce | Flickr
