iPad Pro Release Rumors Emerge

The long-rumored iPad Pro has allegedly made an appearance in a Japanese magazine with details about what users can expect.

According to Macotakara, Japanese magazine Mac Fan has drawings of what appear to be the 12-inch iPad Pro that we’ve been hearing so much about, as well as some details about the yet-to-be-announced Apple tablet.

The magazine refers to the larger tablet as the iPad Air Plus, which would actually be a good name for it, considering that the iPhone 6 line has its own “Plus” product.

The magazine also claims that the larger slate will include a 12.2-inch display, a new Apple A9 processor, and four speakers that will offer stereo sound in any direction. The magazine also notes that we could see this larger iPad Air Plus launch sometime in the spring, which goes along with other release rumors that we’ve heard in the recent past.

We would obviously take this rumor with a grain of salt, but it’s at least worth nothing that this same magazine included drawings of the iPhone 6 well before it launched and they turned out to be quite accurate, so we wouldn’t be surprised if we were actually looking at the iPad Pro.

The iPad Pro is one device that many people have been looking forward to, but Apple has yet to make it official. Rumors have been floating around for quite a while, but we’ve heard a few rumors just recently, suggesting that the tablet is somewhat close to an official launch.

Earlier this month we heard rumors that the iPad Pro will come with a 12.2-inch display along with a body that could be just 7mm thick, putting it in between the iPhone 6 and the iPad Air 2.

Furthermore, the new tablet is rumored to come with stereo speakers, thanks to the addition of two more speakers at the top of the device rather than just at the bottom.

Perhaps what’s more interesting is that Apple will market the iPad Pro has a horizontal tablet, rather than a vertical one, seeing as how all of Apple’s press shots and demos are with the iPad standing up, rather than being in landscape mode. That will definitely be something new for the company, but it’s said that the position of the Home button and the front-facing camera won’t change from current standards.

It’s actually been a couple of months since we last heard of an iPad Pro rumor, even though speculation about the larger tablet has circulated for several years now.

If the iPad Pro does indeed see the light of day, it will most likely be aimed at professionals, such as photographers, designers, architects, etc. Of course, the iPad is already a useful device in these professions, but a version with a larger screen and faster internals could be an even better device for such users.

Other than the rumored release timeline, we don’t know much about this fabled iPad Pro. We heard late last year that the device would have a Retina display, but would come with an ever higher resolution than the current resolution found on today’s iPad’s, making the iPad Pro one of the highest resolution displays on the market if it releases.

Furthermore, we were told back in November of last year that production of 12.9-inch iPad displays was underway, with a prediction that 2014 would be the year that we would see the iPad Pro, so there’s certainly some inconsistencies as far as the rumored release timeline, and we definitely won’t be seeing the iPad Pro this year.

2015 could be the year, though, but we won’t be holding our breath, as there is simply no solid evidence or rumors of such a device releasing anytime soon.