God bless technology. Apart from giving us fantastic gadgets to spend our days with, technology has also turned out to be an early warning system that can keep us informed about the impending launches of the latest iterations of our favorite devices. As per mobile marketing firm Fiksu Apple is testing several new iPad models in and around Cupertino.
Before delving deeper, let’s take a look at how could Fiksu even know such a thing. Whenever Apple is testing a new device, it installs multiple applications upon it to check performance. Now, there is a high possibility that at least some of these applications have Fiksu’s tracking and attribution SDK in them. And that is how Fiksu can recognize when something extraordinary happens — such as these apps being used by Apple devices that see the daylight for the first time ever.
So, the last time iPad launches took place, Fiksu noticed that devices with internal model names “6,3/6,4” and “6,7/6,8” were being tested around Cupertino. This time around though, Fiksu started noticing models 7,1” “7,2,” “7,3,” and “7,4.” in its logs.
Further proof arrived in form of the fact that the apps running on these iPads included games, music, real estate and weather. What’s more, they were all discovered to be running either the latest beta of iOS (iOS 10.3) or the unreleased version iOS 11.
Meanwhile, that was all the data we received from Fiksu. For more information, we have a leaked investor note from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo to turn to. According to the report, Apple is expected to bring in a new iteration along its 12.9-inch iPad Pro model. The company is also expected to introduce a brand new 10-inch or 10.5-inch model.
Finally, we can also expect a 9.7-inch iPad that will likely be lighter on the pockets. And of course, there are rumors of an iPad mini that this particular report failed to mention. Interestingly, we have four potential iPad candidates put forward by hearsay and we also have four models as per Fiksu’s report.
However, lets not get too excited. Fiksu discovered four distinct signals last time as well, and Apple ended up launching just two new iPad iterations. Meanwhile, Apple will be attempting to get its declining iPad sales back on track. So we can see it put in something of an extra effort around this year.
The company marked a year-over-year drop of 19 percent drop in units sold, and a 22 percent drop in revenue in its last quarterly report. These are dismal figures driven by the fact that people don’t tend to change their iPads as frequently as iPhones. Let’s see if Apple can help change their minds this time around.
