Two years ago, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman revealed that Apple was experimenting with giant iPads, for those who like their portable devices to be less portable.
At the time, Gurman himself said they were “a couple of years down the road at the earliest”, so how is that whole giant iPad dream coming along now that we’re… a couple of years down the road?
Well, according to Gurman, Apple was considering releasing one this year, but bottled it.
This tidbit comes in the Q&A section of his Power On newsletter where he’s asked the question directly. Apple apparently “got close” to releasing a 14in iPad but ultimately decided against it.
Part of this is to do with Apple’s plan to introduce OLED screens to its iPad range next year. That’s already going to be an expensive upgrade, and the bigger the screen, the higher the cost.
Apple may also have taken one look at the dumpster fire that is the global economy and decided that maybe this wasn’t the time to introduce a giant and expensive tablet into the world. The company may also have decided that introducing 14- and 16in tablets — as predicted by The Information last year — might prevent people from buying its perfectly good 14- and 16in MacBook Pros.
Whatever the reason, it doesn’t look like the giant iPads are in the works for the foreseeable future, which must come as a relief to Samsung and its giant, impractical Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra given Apple’s ridiculous dominance in the world of tablets.
Gurman previously stated that he doesn’t expect “anything other than minor updates to the company’s other tablets” before the new iPad Pros last next year. Still, the iPhone 15 is just around the corner, so there’s still something to traipse to your local Apple Store for if you’ve spotted the telltale signs of iWithdrawal.
