The new and bigger iPad? (Photo : Nowhereelse.fr )
Sales of iPads were the lone dark cloud in the silver lining of Apple's mammoth revenues in 2014.
iPad shipments for the quarter ending in December stood at 21.4 million units, down 18 percent from 26 million units year-on-year, reported Apple Insider. The sales drop caused iPad revenues to fall 22 percent to $9 billion compared to 2014's $11.5 billion. In contrast, some 69 percent of Apple's $74.6 billion revenue in 2014 came from the iPhone.
Into this gloomy picture come photo leaks claiming to show the look of the upcoming iPad, apparently from third parties that are making the iPad's case.
Images posted by Nowhereelse.fr show the "iPad Pro" having dual-stereo speakers at the bottom of the slate and the usual Lightning port. Placements of the other buttons are similar to the current iPad Air 2.
Then there's the name for the device. There's been no reliable information about this but speculation is the new iPad might be called either the iPad Pro or iPad Air Plus. The latter name has been cited by some tech pundits as the better choice.
What is certain is Apple has been developing a larger screen iPad for past two years. The display could come in at 12.2 inches or 12.9 inches compared to the iPad Air 2's 9.7 inches.
A recent post on Chinese microblogging site Weibo provided the most extensive specs of the upcoming iPad. It insists the iPad will be called the iPad Plus, however.
Among the rumored specs of this tab: a 12.9-inch display with 2K resolution (either 2048 x 1536 like the iPad Air 2 or 2560 x 1440); an ultra-thin profile at 7 mm; a weight of 700 grams (much heavier than the 437 grams of the iPad Air 2) and a hefty battery capacity of 11,000mAh.
The iPad Plus could be announced this spring.
