Apple Expected to Launch New iPad Mini As Early As This Year

Concept by Álvaro Pabesio

After the new iPhones, Apple is set to reveal new hardware at an event next Tuesday, on the 30th of October. This time around, the company’s focus will be on the iPad and Mac–two of its product lines that aren’t doing as well as the iPhone.

Apple is already expected to introduce a new iPad Pro, with an edge-to-edge display like the iPhone X. The device is getting rid of the home button and thus Touch ID, replacing it with Face ID as seen on the latest iPhones. The upgrade will introduce an improved display, but more importantly: Type-C ports. The new iPad Pro will be Apple’s first step towards bringing Type-C onto the iPhone, starting off with the upcoming iPad Pro devices.

According to a new report from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (via MacRumours), the company will reportedly introduce a new, redesigned Apple Pencil at Tuesday’s event, too.

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

There could be one more thing, though: a new iPad Mini. Apple is reportedly working on an upgraded iPad Mini with improved processors and a lower-cost panel. The iPad Mini is long due for a serious upgrade, and this could be it. The iPad Mini obviously needs support for Apple Pencil as well, and support for the new Apple Pencil could make it worth the purchase over the $329 iPad aimed at students.

Kuo says Apple may or may not launch the new iPad Mini at its event on Tuesday. It’s possible we will get to see the new iPad at the event, but there’s a possibility of the device launching in early 2019 instead. We shall see.

Along with the new iPad Pro and possibly the iPad Mini, Cupertino is reportedly going to launch a new low-cost MacBook, likely as an upgrade to the MacBook Air. The company is reportedly going to introduce upgrades to the iMac, Mac Mini, and the regular MacBook, too.

Oh, and, remember the AirPower and the new AirPods? Those could make an appearance too.

Tagged with

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Conversation 24 comments

  • jaredthegeek

    Premium Member
    23 October, 2018 - 2:27 pm

    <p>A new iPad mini with LTE and pencil support would make me pull the trigger on one.</p>

    • SvenJ

      23 October, 2018 - 9:03 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#355877"><em>In reply to jaredthegeek:</em></a><em> Plus 1…actually 2 </em></blockquote><p><br></p>

  • skane2600

    23 October, 2018 - 2:41 pm

    <p>Apple is upgrading the wrong mini.</p>

    • Gregory Steeno

      23 October, 2018 - 5:03 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#355882">In reply to skane2600:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>^ This</p>

  • simont

    Premium Member
    23 October, 2018 - 3:58 pm

    <p>An Apple Mini with A11 or A12 Processor would be great. It doesn't need Apple Pencil. Doesn't even matter if it uses USB-C or the regular connector, I will be throwing money at them.</p>

  • Stooks

    23 October, 2018 - 4:01 pm

    <p>The problem with this and other speculative Apple product rumors are they are almost never right or even half right. There is always much hype and then when the event happens way less substance.</p><p><br></p><p>I have serious doubts about the USB-C. Moving from the 30pin to the Lightning irked a lot people and that was not long ago. It will also be bad PR with every tech blogger on the planet saying they should have went to USB-C when they went to Lightning. Also USB-C is a thicker port and Apple does not do thicker, no matter what.</p><p><br></p><p>Mac sales have fallen the last two quarters after 5 years of going up or being flat, because of the recent Macbook Pro issues (USB-C only, removal of magsafe, utterly horrible keyboard, keyboard failing, lame touch bar, throttling because they are too thin, big price hikes, no Mac Pro, no mini update). If they do not do the right things with the Mac updates and go off on some weird tangent like ditching the magsafe adding the touchbar, combined with a price hike then this will be the end of Mac sales going up and a signal to Mac users that iOS is the only Apple game in town. I know lots of Pro Mac users that were tired of waiting and are now on the PC and happy about it after the adjustment period. They saved a ton of money as well. </p>

    • rbgaynor

      23 October, 2018 - 5:49 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#355918">In reply to Stooks:</a></em></blockquote><p>"It will also be bad PR with every tech blogger on the planet saying they should have went to USB-C when they went to Lightning."</p><p><br></p><p>Lightning pre-dated USB-C, what you are saying was not possible (Lightning was released in Sept 2012, USB-C spec was published in Dec. 2014).</p>

    • SvenJ

      23 October, 2018 - 9:02 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#355918"><em>In reply to Stooks:</em></a><em> </em>There are a lot of USB-C devices that don't support everything that USB-C<em> can</em> do. Might be a little confusing, but people need to take some responsibility in checking or asking if their iPad will drive an external DVD or not. I think standardizing on a particular connector just makes sense. The MacBook is completely USB-C, Pro's support it. They just released a Watch charger with USB-C. They already have USB-C chargers. I think they are leaning in that direction. Moving iPads makes sense. People probably don't plug that much into them, and if they supply a USB-C charger and cable, people will likely be OK with it.</blockquote><p><br></p>

  • kevin_heskett

    23 October, 2018 - 4:32 pm

    <p>My kids have iPad mini 2's would like a new one for them to upgrade to have just been waiting</p>

  • kevin_heskett

    23 October, 2018 - 4:35 pm

    <p>I agree, I want to upgrade my children's minis but I am not sure how well facial recognition would work for them if they added that as well. I assume it would still be a home button.</p>

  • Detective Polarphant

    23 October, 2018 - 5:08 pm

    <p>I'm very sceptical about a USB C port being added – remember there were lots of rumours about this with iPhones previously as well – but it didn't happen.</p><p><br></p><p>If they add USB C they will loose money on Lightening port accessories – in addition USB C is already a bit of a confusing mess, and on iPads and IOS it will be even more confusing, because IOS doesn't support all USB C devices. If you plug in a USB C printer or mouse etc… it won't work, let alone plugging in a USB C to USB A adapter and expecting USB A devices to work – it would just be confusing and frustrating to users.</p><p><br></p><p>A USB C connector on the charger and maybe a Lightening to USB C cable for connecting to an external monitor seem much more likely.</p>

    • ivan19998

      24 October, 2018 - 10:02 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#355941">In reply to Detective Polarphant:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>You can plug in printer, midi-keyboard, regular keyboard and some other devices. They will work as they currently do via USB A dongle.</p>

  • jimchamplin

    Premium Member
    23 October, 2018 - 5:27 pm

    <p>As much as they've screwed up the Macintosh and don't seem interested in fixing it, all the while raising the prices as they turn it into junk…</p><p><br></p><p>… I'm convinced that they're tanking it intentionally so that people just stop buying them.</p>

    • rfog

      24 October, 2018 - 4:07 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#355945">In reply to jimchamplin:</a></em></blockquote><p>I purchased a new 27" iMac this summer (about June) to replace my old 2011 one and… well… seems crap. Only 1 fan, it gets hot very fast…</p><p><br></p><p>And is slower than my old one! MacOS is not the best disk access operative system, not in desktop, but this one is even worse. You cannot do more than one intensive task at a time because the machine literally dies. It works even worse than my Thinkpad W550s, that really is a piece of crap.</p>

      • jimchamplin

        Premium Member
        24 October, 2018 - 8:41 am

        <blockquote><a href="#356028"><em>In reply to rfog:</em></a></blockquote><p>If you’ve got a spinning disk, macOS is actually <em>hurting</em> performance. The OS and the new APFS filesystem are heavily optimized for SSD.</p><p><br></p><p>High Sierra and Mojave both feel relatively sluggish compared to Sierra and El Cap on my late 2012 Mac mini.</p>

        • rfog

          25 October, 2018 - 3:46 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#356055">In reply to jimchamplin:</a></em></blockquote><p>Will improve the disk performance if I format the Fusion Drive to HPFS+ or whatever is called?</p><p><br></p><p>ADD: Just investigate and is not possible… </p>

  • prettyconfusd

    23 October, 2018 - 6:31 pm

    <p>If the new iPad Mini supports the pencil I'll be very tempted to pick one up – the lack of a decent small tablet with pen support has been a constant pain to me for years, and as Microsoft clearly aren't going to bother and Android small tablets are vanishing it seems Apple may be my only hope!</p>

    • Simard57

      23 October, 2018 - 8:31 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#355959">In reply to prettyconfusd:</a></em></blockquote><p>doesn't the Surface Go support inking?</p><p><br></p>

      • christianwilson

        Premium Member
        23 October, 2018 - 8:59 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#355981">In reply to Simard57:</a></em></blockquote><p>Good point. Surface Go does support pen input, though its size is closer to the smaller iPad Pro than iPad mini. I get the impression prettyconfusd is looking for something even smaller than a Surface Go.</p><p><br></p><p>I use an iPad Pro and am happy with the size but I can understand the appeal in something even smaller (journal or memo pad sized).</p>

        • rfog

          24 October, 2018 - 4:02 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#355986">In reply to christianwilson:</a></em></blockquote><p>I have a Lenovo Yoga with 8" of screen running Windows 10 and I really don't understand why Lenovo stopped that line. It is perfect to take notes even with a normal ballpen, but currently is too slow for day use… but wasn't when it was released.</p>

      • Nonmoi

        26 October, 2018 - 3:22 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#355981">In reply to Simard57:</a></em></blockquote><p>10 inches are too big, at least for me.</p><p><br></p>

  • SvenJ

    23 October, 2018 - 8:53 pm

    <p>OMG, a new iPad Mini? Warm up the credit card. I'm not sure my wife would even care what it costs. </p>

  • rfog

    24 October, 2018 - 4:09 am

    <p>I have a question: if they remove borders, how are we going to hold it? My current iPad 10.5 has the problem that sometimes my fingers touch the border of the screen… I could not understand that. Currently Apple is a company with design and fashi0n over the functionality…</p>

  • Mike Widrick

    24 October, 2018 - 9:40 am

    <p>It seems like madness to eliminate the bezel on such a large device, but I'm sure, as with phones, everyone will just add a plastic otterbox to have something to grip. Thereby raising the point of why it doesn't just ship with a plastic case anyway.</p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC