The iPad in 2018

If you want to get a sense of where the iPad will go in 2018, look to the iPhone X, writes Jason Cross

When it comes to the tablet market, there’s the iPad and there’s everybody else. Apple dominates the market, especially in the premium price range. To hold on to its position, Apple has been kept things fresh with new models like the

12.9in iPad Pro and new technologies like Apple Pencil and ProMotion.

But the fundamental design of the iPad hasn’t changed much in years. That could all change in 2018, as Apple gives use the first holistic new iPad design in a very long time. What’s the latest? According to DigiTimes, which cites “sources from related upstream suppliers,” Apple wants to release a new, cheaper 9.7in iPad in 2018. The sources claim the model would start at around £259. That’s considerably cheaper than the already rather affordable £329 iPad Apple sells today.

No specifications or details were given, just an estimated arrival of “second quarter of 2018”. Plausible?

Apple’s iPad sales have been in a slow downward slide from its heights in 2014, but have started to recover this year thanks in large part to the new lower-priced £329 model. It makes sense for Apple to keep the price pressure on.

This may not be a new model, but just a tweaked version of the current model expected to sell at a lower price, with more advanced iPads and iPad Pros filling out the rest of the pricing stack. New A11X processor Recent iPad models have come equipped with new A-series chips based on the same architecture that debuted in the previous year’s iPhones. For example, the A10 found in the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus has two