Apple iPad Mini 4 Is Coming, But Apple Could Skip Air 3

The Apple iPad Mini 4 is apparently still slated for announcement later this fall but new reports seem to indicate it won’t be accompanied by the Air 3. Instead, the Cupertino-based company is preparing to bring a “Pro” version of its ultra popular tablet line, but doesn’t want to oversaturate its own market. If these new reports are true, they would be contradictory to other news that was being put out there just a week ago.

According to Apple Insider, the iPad Mini 4 has been all but confirmed to be announced alongside a new iPhone and the Pro. The iPad Pro would sport the biggest screen the Cupertino-based company has ever brought to market and is specifically geared to compete with the Microsoft Surface Pro. Both of these tablets are made to try and lure in business users and people who are actually looking to replace their laptops with something lighter, that has a touch screen but can still be folded up and toted easily.

Whether or not the Air 3 is really going to be left out of the mix is still very much a debatable opinion at this time. Taiwanese tech website, Digitimes, is the first to go live with the report and while the site has had some serious hits on inside information, there have also been plenty of times the site has been off a bit. Those who are worried about getting a new Apple iPad Mini probably don’t have to worry, considering all reports seem to indicate that Apple is going to be bringing a Mini 4, for sure.

Digitimes says that their industry sources have told staffers that the company has turned conservative when it comes to putting tablets out there and there simply isn’t enough of a difference in the Air 2 and plans for the Air 3 to bring it to market this year. Perhaps this will become and every-other-year kind of release. It’s also possible that with the Apple iPad Mini 4 and its bigger tablet that the company feels that is enough to bring in customers until they can come up with some real innovations. The company is also expected to bring the iPhone 6S rather than an iPhone 7.

Perhaps the next Air will come alongside that elusive 7 and both will have some wholesale changes in 2016 that aren’t quite ready in 2015. We should know soon enough whether the reports about whether the Apple iPad Mini 4 and iPad Pro are the only new tablets coming this year.

[Photo Courtesy Apple Insider]