In the first edition of his new Power On newsletter for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman said Apple is exploring future iPads with larger displays, although he added that a potential release is likely at least a few years away if ever.
An excerpt from Gurman's newsletter, which also covers some reshuffling of the Apple Car team, Peloton working on a heart rate monitor, and more:
I'm told that Apple has engineers and designers exploring larger iPads that could hit stores a couple of years down the road at the earliest. They're unlikely for next year—with Apple's attention on a redesigned iPad Pro in the current sizes for 2022—and it's possible they never come at all. But a big iPad would be the perfect device for many people, including me, and would continue to blur the lines between tablet and laptop.
The current iPad Pro comes in 11-inch and 12.9-inch display sizes. In a previous Bloomberg report, Gurman and Debby Wu said Apple is testing a new iPad Pro with a glass back that would support wireless charging for release in 2022.
Larger display sizes would help further blur the lines between the iPad Pro and the MacBook Pro, which is available with up to a 16-inch display. However, many customers still believe iPadOS does not take full advantage of the iPad Pro's hardware, and Gurman opined that Apple ultimately needs to allow Mac apps and Mac-like multitasking with more flexible arrangements of app windows on the iPad Pro.
Apple last updated the iPad Pro in April with its custom-designed M1 chip, Thunderbolt support, 5G connectivity on cellular models, a mini-LED display on the 12.9-inch model, up to 2TB of storage, up to 16GB of RAM, and more.
