Jumbo iPad's release reportedly pulled at the last hour for selfish but predictable reasons
In June 2021, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that Apple was exploring an iPad bigger than anything currently available. Subsequent reports from different sources also hinted that a giant iPad was in the works. Gurman has bad news for anyone waiting for the rumored 14-inch iPad.
In his 2021 report, Gurman said that a 14-inch iPad Pro-like tablet was in the pipeline and could hit the shelves in 2023.
In 2022, reliable analyst Ross Young said that a 14.1-inch iPad Pro with a 120Hz screen was in development. Later in December 2022, Young said that Apple had changed its mind and was no longer planning a 14.1-inch tablet.
When questioned about Apple's plans for a large iPad, Gurman said in the new edition of his PowerOn newsletter that we are unlikely to see a 14.1-inch iPad anytime soon. He says that Apple got close to releasing a 14-inch model this year but decided against it later.
Gurman has several theories as to why the project has been shelved.
First off and very obvious: Apple wouldn't want its tablets to encroach on the market of its computers by giving a new iPad model a Mac-sized screen.
And it's not just about diluting the differentiation between the Mac and iPad alone. There are some cost and screen restrictions that Apple has to consider. The company is already planning a slightly bigger 13-inch iPad Pro for the first half of 2024 with an OLED screen. It presumably doesn't want to release two high-end iPads in close proximity to each other. Per another leaker known as Analyst 941, the 14.1-inch iPad was going to feature the M3 Pro chip and a special version of iPadOS.
There's still a glimmer of hope for a giant iPad Pro model though. The Information claimed in late 2022 that Apple was working on a 16-inch iPad Pro and that it would be released in Q4 2023.
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