Apple to Announce Refreshed 9.7-Inch iPad Next Week?

Apple will reportedly announce a refreshed version of its 9.7-inch iPad next week, according to 9to5Mac. The iPad will apparently keep the same price point and storage as the current model.

Launching roughly half a year after the current third-generation iPad, this new iPad is said to be a tweaked model and not a complete revamp. As iMore and iLounge previously reported, we expect this new iPad to gain the smaller Lightning connector from the iPhone 5, fifth-generation iPod touch, and seventh-generation iPod nano. Also likely in the mix for this tweaked iPad is global LTE support, just like in the iPhone 5, according to a recent report from The Guardian. Apple could also use this opportunity to upgrade other internals like the processor, screen, battery, etc. but we don’t yet have specifics on this.

Below you can see a chart of the SKUs for the new models. The site says half are for the iPad mini and the other half are for the refreshed iPad.


KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted a tweaked iPad in July and developers have recently reported seeing an unknown iPad3,6 in their logs.

Apple has announced a press conference on October 23rd where it will likely unveil numerous updates to its product lineup.

Read More [via EvilPenguin]