Apple, via Newsroom:

Apple today introduced the new iPad mini, supercharged by the A17 Pro chip and Apple Intelligence, the easy-to-use personal intelligence system that understands personal context to deliver intelligence that is helpful and relevant while protecting user privacy. With a beloved ultraportable design, the new iPad mini is available in four gorgeous finishes, including a new blue and purple, and features the brilliant 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display. A17 Pro delivers a huge performance boost for even the most demanding tasks, with a faster CPU and GPU, a 2x faster Neural Engine than the previous-generation iPad mini, and support for Apple Intelligence.

The new iPad mini features all-day battery life and brand-new experiences with iPadOS 18. Starting at just $499 with 128GB — double the storage of the previous generation — the new iPad mini delivers incredible value and the full iPad experience in an ultraportable design. Customers can pre-order the new iPad mini today, with availability beginning Wednesday, October 23.

From the iPad mini comparison chart, the two significant upgrades are the A17 Pro (vs. an A15 Bionic) and 128GB storage minimum. The A17 Pro is the same chip used in last year’s iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max; technically a generation old, but enough for Apple Intelligence.

(I can’t help but wonder whether the storage bump will increase useable space, or if the OS and Apple Intelligence will take up most of it.)

There’s also improved WiFi (6E vs. 6, though I’m unclear of the real world difference in WiFi speeds), and new colors: blue (replacing pink) and a different (seemingly lighter) shade of purple.

It also adds support for Apple Pencil Pro. If you aren’t aware of the differences between this, the Apple Pencil (2nd generation), and the Apple Pencil (USB‑C), don’t worry, you’re not alone. In brief, Pencil Pro adds barrel roll, haptic feedback, Find My support, and hover.

This otherwise minor (but absolutely necessary) speed bump may explain why it garnered nothing more than a press release.

What strikes me as odd is that it was announced ahead of an expected end-of-October Apple event, and without a corresponding iPad-no-modifiers.

The obvious reason is that Apple wants to focus on new Mac hardware and not confuse things by having iPads thrown into the mix.

But does this then suggest there might not be any iPad announcements in that event? Or, as some are theorizing, no event at all? Both would surprise me.

The iPad Air (11” and 13”) sports an M2, making it Apple Intelligence-ready while positioning it below the M4 iPad Pro. Plus the Air was just updated in May of this year; no reason to update it again so soon.

That’s not true of the current (10th-generation) no-modifiers-iPad. It’s $349, and it’s likely Apple’s best selling iPad by far, but it can’t handle Apple Intelligence: Its A14 Bionic chip is a generation older than the one in the outgoing 6th generation iPad mini. I can’t imagine Apple would let its most popular iPad lag behind without support for Apple Intelligence, so why not update it now, in a joint press release with the iPad mini?

Three possibilities:

1. It’s coming in a separate press release after all.
2. It’s coming in an October event after all.
3. It’s not coming at all.

A second press release a day or a week later for the same product line seems odd, and perhaps without precedent. Announcing both iPad and iPad mini together would make sense: they don’t really cannibalize each other, and can be messaged as “Our New iPad Lineup Is Ready for Apple Intelligence,” a statement that is glaringly untrue today.

Would Apple announce an 11th generation iPad-with-no-modifiers at an otherwise-Mac-focused event? Sure, as the appetizer to the main course, but then, why not include the iPad mini?

The final possibility is rather intriguing: What if there’s no update to the iPad-with-no-modifiers, because that iPad is going away? That leaves us with a classic Good/Better/Best scenario: iPad Mini (A17 Pro, Good), iPad Air (M2, Better), iPad Pro (M4, Best).

But would Apple drop its likely best-selling iPad to execute this strategy? I’m having a tough time believing that.

My guess: A significantly upgraded iPad is coming. M4-based is a strong possibility, but my money (today) is on an A18 or A18 Pro (likely)^[1], the same chips in the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro. The performance delta between it and the iPad mini would explain the latter’s press release treatment: No need call attention to the new iPad mini using last year’s chip.

I’ll also guess it kicks off a late-October event, before Tim and team focus on M4 Macs.