Last year. I went out on a limb suggesting there would be an über-iPad that would take care of several specific concerns content creators had. I whiffed.
With the rumor mill churning away of new iPad Pros at a March2024 event, I wanted to see how far off base I was. Come and keep me company.
In the May 2023 post, Freshly Squeezed Op-Ed: A Case To Be Made For A Different WWDC 2023 … One More Thing, I wrote:
Everyone is making a case for ‘One More Thing’. Mac Glasses, MacPro, what have you. As I look at rumors for one more thing and Apple press releases, they all seem to be pointing at one missing piece of the puzzle that I think will be either announced or debuted at WWDC 2023.
Let’s look at the timeline.
M1-M2 iPads are released in spring and fall of 2022. Everyone agrees that these raise the level you can perform video editing, rendering, 3D modeling and other heavy lifting you may have a need to do.
Now we need software.
But the more we cry for software, the more resolutely they seem to dismiss the problem. And even worse, Apple appears to be leaning strongly into DaVinci Resolve the last several events. Mumbling and grumbling begins that Apple may not be willing to tackle coding FCP for the beastly, Silicon tablets.
Then in May, Apple (with a mere press release) announces the unheralded release of FCP and Logic exclusively for iPad/
M Series. HUZZAH! Let birds sing and babies cry…
Next, iJustine, fellow YouTube personalities and select members of the press get a limited time with the preview, in the hopes they will go back and scream from the mountain tops.
If you have watched any of the YouTube reviews, they were all very impressed with Apple’s work. With the exception of a few missing pieces, they were all rightfully impressed. Apple announces it will be available for a subscription price on May 23 worldwide.
However, they all uniformly said they would try it, but most likely not use it as their primary editor of choice. The reason? Most of them perform their editing off of external drives in order to save space on the internal drive. And there is only one USB-3 port on the iPad…
That’s when I remembered a little rumor from several months back that everybody was laughing at. But I propose this leads us to our, ‘One More Thing’…
WWDC 2023 releases the rumored 16” iPad Ultra! A 16” Liquid Retina display with ProMotion, True Tone, and P3 wide color screen, 2 (possibly 3) USB-C ports (Thunderbolt 4 optional), powered by an M3 chip, and a 2TB to 8TB SSD drive.
Will it come with everything I want? No, of course not. Will it cost an arm and a leg? Yes, of course. Probably several internal organs, as well.
But think of it. Apple started by putting M series chips in the revered tablet. Then they announce the release of FCP and Logic for iPad’s upper echelon devices. You now have everybody’s undivided attention and they’re drooling and grasping for their wallets with sweaty palms. A demographic ripe for the picking.
I think we’ve been played. Like a violin.
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So people are rumor mongering once again of the rare 16” iPad Pro Ultra finally making its long awaited debut.
This time I’ll settle for a ground-rule double.
©2023, 2024 Frank Petrie
There’s one important reason I want you to be right. It’s so I’ll stop wondering if I should downsize to the 11″ iPad Pro from my beloved 12.9″. If there was three sizes, then mine would be **just** right!