Apple is gearing up to release the 11th-generation base iPad in the spring, which will come pre-installed with the upcoming release of iPadOS 18.3. This is coming from a source that has a solid track record for future Apple software updates.
The base iPad was last updated back in October 2022, and it features the A14 Bionic chip, four vibrant colors, optional 5G connectivity, and an all-modern design for the first time on a base iPad. It was criticized for its higher starting price of $449, but earlier this year in May, Apple dropped the starting price to $349. Up until now, this has been the longest gap ever for the base iPad to receive an update, and the reason is that Apple is waiting for its more capable Apple Silicon chips that support Apple Intelligence to become cheaper to produce.
The source expects Apple to release iPadOS 18.3 sometime in late January or early February, giving the company enough time to deploy the software to the upcoming table prior to its launch in the spring.
This next iPad is expected to be just a spec bump as Apple will likely upgrade it to a newer chip that will feature at least 8GB of memory to support Apple Intelligence, possibly the A18 chip. It’s also expected to be one of the first Apple products to pioneer Apple’s first custom-made 5G modem chip, which will be capable of theoretical 5G download speeds of up to 4Gb/s, so don’t expect faster mmWave 5G speeds, but rather sub-6GHz 5G. Apple may introduce an all-new Magic Keyboard accessory that will support this low-cost iPad and/or next-generation iPad Air. We expect Apple to introduce the iPad 11 around the same time as the highly-anticipated iPhone SE 4 and the aforementioned iPad Air in the spring.
Currently, we’re seeing huge sales on the iPad 10 at $279 on Amazon. Although that’s a steal on such a tablet for everything tasks, I highly recommend you hold off until Apple introduces the iPad 11 so that you may future-proof yourself in getting the latest hardware/software features.
