iPad refresh could include a bezel-free 10.9-inch model

Both iPad Pro

Apple should update both iPad Pros next year, with analysts from the banking and financial services company Barclays calling for a brand new model to be added to the lineup. Supply chain sources Barclays recently quizzed think the new iPad Pro model will have a screen measuring 10.9 inches.

And because that tablet is expected to adopt an all-new bezel-free design, its 10.9-inch screen could be fitted inside the current 9.7-inch package.

Barclays analysts Blayne Curtis, Christopher Hemmelgarn, Thomas O’Malley and Jerry Zhang suspect that engineering a 10.9-inch screen into the current 9.7-inch iPad Pro form factor may require putting the iconic Home button behind the display.

Come next year, a second-generation 9.7-inch iPad Pro is expected to become a “low cost” model alongside the 7.9-inch iPad mini, pictured below. Barclays expects the iPad mini 4 to continue selling throughout next year without a hardware refresh.

iPad mini 4 image 001

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo first predicted a trio of new iPad Pros in 2017: 9.7, 12.9 and a new 10.6-inch device. If you ask the fairly reliable Japanese blog Mac Otakara, display size of the new iPad Pro model will be10.1 inches diagonally.

No matter the source, the reports agree on one thing: a new iPad Pro size is coming.

While touring Asian supply chain, Barclays analysts reportedly heard that the delayed $159 AirPods earbuds will enter mass production in December, in time for Christmas.

They also learned that next year’s iPhone 8 may include a brand new 5.8-inch model with a curved, bezel-free OLED display and an in-screen Home button that would presumably let engineers squeeze the bigger screen in the same overall form factor like the current 5.5-inch Apple handsets.

Source: MacRumors