Apple and the iPad: actually, the release timeline isn’t that straightforward
The iPhone and its release dates have been quite traditional. But in fact, the story of iPad releases has not been that straightforward and the months and years of release appear a bit hectic.
iPad Air releases:
- 1st gen: October 22, 2013
- 2nd gen: October 16, 2014
- 3rd gen: March 18, 2019 (released March 25)
- 4th gen: September 15, 2020 (but remember 2020 was a disruptive year)
- 5th gen: March 9, 2022 (released March 18)
As you can see, we have three releases in the fall and two in the spring.iPad Pro releases:
- 1st gen: September 9, 2015
- 2nd gen: June 5, 2017
- 3rd gen: October 30, 2018
- 4th gen: March 18, 2020
- 5th gen: April 20, 2021
- 6th gen: October 18, 2022 (released on October 26)
We have three fall releases, two spring releases, and one summer release during WWDC in 2017. Quite the fun ride, I might add! Based on just that apparent randomness alone, it makes sense to see the iPad Pro right now, in May, although Apple has never unveiled an iPad in May.
Now, let’s glance at the normal iPad and the iPad mini, just to gain some more context.
Entry-level iPad:
- 1st gen: January 27, 2010
- 2nd gen: March 2, 2011
- 3rd gen: March 7, 2021
- 4th gen: October 23, 2012
- 5th gen: March 21, 2017
- 6th gen: March 27, 2018
- 7th gen: September 10, 2019
- 8th gen: September 15, 2020
- 9th gen: September 14, 2021
- 10th gen: October 18, 2022
We see a shift of release dates towards the fall in the last four years and rather hectic releases previously. In 2023, we didn’t get a release that broke the “one release every year” cycle that’s been on since 2017. iPad mini:
- 1st gen: October 23, 2012
- 2nd gen: October 22, 2013
- 3rd gen: October 16, 2014
- 4th gen: September 9, 2015
- 5th gen: March 18, 2019
- 6th gen: September 24, 2021
For the iPad mini, we’re seeing one deviation from the usual fall time-frame for release (in 2019).
But the hectic iPad release schedule is not the only surprise Apple has done over the years. Although the brand is known for being reliable and even serious, it’s no stranger to bringing good news with a twist.
Apple’s “One More Thing”
Steve Jobs was the person who started the “One More Thing” tradition
If you’re a longtime Apple fan, you have probably heard of the catchy phrase “One More Thing”. Basically, that’s a traditional Apple surprise unveiling and dates back to 1999. What “One More Thing” stands for is Steve Jobs’ practice of announcing a pretty big thing at the end of a keynote, when everybody expects the event to be over.
The first product that was announced as “One More Thing” is the AirPort – a wireless router. After that, it became a tradition to have a big product or service unveiled as “One More Thing”.
Products unveiled under this tradition include the iPod Mini in different colors, a MacBook with a metal enclosure in 2008, FaceTime (during WWDC in 2010), the first MacBook Air (which was introduced as a “Mac meets the iPad” type of device in 2010), the first Apple Watch in 2014, and the iPhone X in 2017.
This shows that Apple, or at least Steve Jobs, did like to provide its fans with a nice surprise product. However, we haven’t had a new “One More Thing” since 2017.
Other Apple surprises
The fact that the “One More Thing” tradition seems to have ended in 2017 doesn’t mean that suddenly Apple doesn’t like to surprise us anymore. And that’s definitely obvious with the 2024 iPad event scheduled for May, although Apple has never unveiled an iPad in the month of May.
One recent example of a surprise event is the “Scary Fast” event in 2023 that no one saw coming. It was scheduled for October 30 and introduced the new M3-powered version of the iMac. Before the event, nobody was sure what it would be about and people were speculating it was about new MacBooks, including a new MacBook Pro 16-inch, which didn’t happen.
The Scary Fast event in 2023 was a surprise event as well
In 2022, Apple had a special event in March to showcase the new Mac Studio and also to introduce two new colors for the iPhone 13, a new iPad Air, and a new iPhone SE. Also, in 2020 we had a special event in September that introduced the Apple Watch 6, Apple Watch SE, an iPad Air, and entry-level iPad, alongside the new service Apple One. At the time, the event was surprising, as usually the month of September was reserved for an announcement of the new iPhones – a tradition dating back to 2013 with the iPhone 5s.
The iPhone 12 phones were instead announced in October. After 2020, Apple returned to its standard September unveiling for new iPhones.
Also, announcing the second generation iPad Pro in 2017 during WWDC is another surprising move. WWDC is a developer conference usually focused on software updates and the introduction of new operating systems. But in 2017, we also got the iPad Pro. Last year, we got the Vision Pro during WWDC as well, alongside MacBooks.
Just in general, historically, Apple has held an event in the spring, the annual WWDC conference in the summer, and then in the fall: one event for iPhones and one event for new Macs.
But during Apple’s history, as you can see, we’ve had our fair share of “surprising” or special Apple events that were not a part of the usual schedule.
2023: the year without an iPad
But with the Vision Pro
There’s another reason why we are seeing a surprise Apple event in May for the new iPads. For the first time since 2010, Apple has gone an entire year (2023) without any iPad release. And maybe this is causing the company to create an unusually timed event for the iPad Air and Pro. Of course, we have to also take into account several important things that went on last year, and how the times are changing, to be able to understand why no iPad was released in 2023.
We now have the Vision Pro, which is a first from Apple in the AR/VR scene, and also, we have the current tech world obsession with AI. To stay with what everyone else in the industry is doing, Apple is bound to be working on AI as well (and it’s recently acquired an AI company too).
These changing times could also be influencing changes in Apple’s iPad releases.
We’re still not sure what Apple could unveil, apart from it being connected to iPads
As usual, Apple is not disclosing exactly what products we’ll see during the event on May 7. Judging by the fact that just a few days before Apple announced the event, Gurman believed the new iPad Air and iPad Pro models would be unveiled in the week of May 6, I can say that most likely Gurman is right.
However, it’s not 100% confirmed. Could Apple only unveil the iPad Air models and reserve the iPad Pro for a later date? This though crossed my mind just because the iPad Pro is a big deal and it seems peculiar to unveil it one month before the WWDC (where the new iPadOS would be announced). It seems more reasonable to announce the new iPadOS and then in the fall, release it alongside the new iPad Pro…
Or could Apple include an entry-level iPad or an iPad mini (which is also due for an upgrade) in the mix for the May announcement?
The predominant rumor in the industry is that the entry-level iPad and the mini will be announced later this year. And Gurman believes it’s the iPad Pro and the iPad Air we’re going to see now, so most likely, that’s the iPads you should expect. But as you can see, Apple is very capable of surprising us, so let’s just wait and see how it goes!
