Apple's iPad Lineup Is A Confusing Mess But Not For Long, M3 MacBook Air Coming Soon

In his latest newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that Apple will be looking to simplify its iPad lineup in 2024, while upgrading the MacBook Air to its latest M3 chip. According to Gurman the iPad lineup is now too confusing for prospective buyers, with five options currently available with the intent of trying to appeal to as many people as possible.

The five options are the iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad Mini and both the 9th and 10th generations of the normal iPad. It’s pretty easy for someone to compare the differences between iPad Pro and the iPad mini but, it gets a lot more difficult to discern what iPad is the right choice when deciding between the 9th and 10th generations iPads.


Buying decisions should get markedly easier as the iPad Pro will be sporting an OLED display and have the latest M3 chip alongside a refreshed Magic Keyboard, making it the clear king of the lineup and a step up from the iPad Air. That said, Gurman notes that the lowest end iPad will be staying around because Apple needs a device that it can sell to the education market and can compete with lower priced Chromebooks. Meanwhile, the iPad mini will still be there for buyers looking for a smaller tablet.

Apple is also looking to bring its M3 chips to the MacBook Air. Gurman says that “the new models — codenamed J613 and J615 — won’t bring much new to the table other than an M3 processor, but that’s a noteworthy event in itself. After all, it puts a cutting-edge 3-nanometer chip in Apple’s highest-volume machine.” Making its most affordable MacBook even faster will be good news for consumers.

2024 looks like it will be a good year for either new buyers or buyers who were waiting for Apple to offer something worth upgrading for.