Photo: Cult of Mac
A day after a pair of unknown iPads were found listed on the Bureau of Indian Standards certification website, two more have now turned up. These are almost certainly tablets that have been the topic of many leaks in recent months.
The 2024 iPad Pro and iPad Air might have just taken another small step toward release.
Indian regulators keep us guessing about future iPads
India’s BIS certifies products so they can be released in the country. It’s a required step for tablets and many other types of computers.
And it now lists four Apple devices. Two have model numbers A2836 and A2837, according to 91mobiles. The others have model numbers A2898 and A2899, according to mysmartprice.
These numbers don’t correspond with any current iPads, though they do follow the same format. The 2022 iPad Pro 12.9-inch is model number A2436, while the version with cellular-wireless capabilities is A2437, for example. And the 2022 iPad Air is A2588 while the cellular version is A2589.
Given the pattern established by Apple’s current tablets, it seems likely each pair of model numbers just approved by India’s BIS are for an iPad plus its cellular version. So these two sets are quite possibly for an iPad Air and an iPad Pro, but not four different models.
We’ll likely know for sure in May. That’s the month Apple is expected to introduce its next-generation iPadOS products.
What to expect from 2024 iPad Pro and iPad Air
Many leaks indicate that the highlight of the 2024 iPad Pro will be an OLED (short for “organic light-emitting diode“) display in which each pixel glows on its own. This leads to a bright, even image with strong contrast. Leaks indicate these will go into both the 13-inch version and the 11-inch one.
OLED screen panels don’t need backlights, so they’re thinner than traditional LEDs. This supposedly allowed Apple designers to make the upcoming iPad Pro significantly slimmer than its predecessors.
Also supposedly coming soon is the first 12.9-inch iPad Air. The previous largest version includes a 10.9-inch display.
The current fifth-gen iPad Air from 2022 runs an Apple M1 processor that debuted in 2020. The 2024 version reportedly will jump over M2 all the way to an M3.