No, as good as Jon Prosser is, he has not ascended to oracle status yet. According to @ApplTrack, he hasn’t even passed up Mark Gurman at this point. No, if you want a source of release information that is pretty much 100% reliable, then you should be paying attention to the Eurasian Economic Commission’s filings. They are open and Apple major devices always hit there within a month or so of release.
Today, we have Apple Watches and iPads on the agenda. If you read my post on Jon Prosser’s big leak episode yesterday, then you know that he’s already predicted that both will be announced by Apple during the first full week in September, right after Labor Day here in the US. It looks like a plan is coming together.
So we pretty much know what to expect from the Apple Watch at this point. It should have Blood Oxygen tracking. It won’t have Blood Pressure monitoring yet, but that’s fine because if I know Apple, that means it isn’t ready for prime time. Maybe the Series 6’s bezels will be a tad slimmer, too.
It’s possible we will be able to see skin temp readings with the new Watch, as Fitbit just added this to their new device by using an internal temperature sensor that was already installed. The Apple Watch likely has the same sensor, because measuring skin temp, along with blood ox levels and heart rate, was mentioned in my article on a current Stanford study on COVID-19 early diagnosis. The researchers were using devices from Apple, Fitbit and Garmin to take these readings. Unless Apple loaned them Series 6s with ironclad NDAs for this study (which I highly doubt), that means skin temperature readings are possible with the current Apple Watch hardware. In this case, as with the Noise Level Monitoring that Apple added last year, we should get this capability on some older models.
That’s pretty much it for the Watch. How about the iPad? Of maybe iPads, based on the entries in the EEC’s database.
While it is possible that the two iPad entries represent cellular and WiFi-Only models, the differences in the numbers make me think this is something different.
The first iPad entry only has two model numbers listed. Could that be a base-model iPad? It is possible, since Apple maintains two storage levels, currently 32 GB and 128 GB, for that device. This doesn’t account for the fact that there are cellular models of the iPad available, but it’s possible. Maybe the cellular models are either coming later or aren’t sold in the Eurasian market?
The second entry for an iPad lists five separate models. This sounds like one of two devices that we’ve seen many on-again, off-again rumors about over the last few months. That would be the iPad Air, which is reportedly getting a top to bottom overhaul, or the iPad Pro, which would just be getting 5G and a processor upgrade to an A14X. So which is it?
Earlier this month, there were rumors that the Air was being bumped back to March of 2021. However, none of the prime-time Apple leakers has gone out on that limb yet, so I’ve been hoping this was just a case of some bad info. Over the last two weeks, I’ve seen a couple of predictions that the Air was back on for this Fall, but again, none of this is coming from guys with real track records.
On the other hand, Jon Prosser has recently predicted that an iPad Pro IS coming between now and the end of the year. He definitely does have the track record, but he is the ONLY one saying this right now and multiple sources, including Ming-Chi Kuo, said the new Pro with Mini-LED was being bumped to 2021. Normally I would trust just trust Prosser, but with the fluid situation that we have right now, I’m going to say I’m buying the Air more today. That could certainly change, but the new Pro has the higher-end components that are more likely to be in shorter supply, while the Air would be made from parts and frames that already exist.
[Update: Thanks to @shameermulji for reminding me that Jon Prosser tweeted out a brief prediction earlier today that a new iPad Air IS about to drop, along with a refreshed base-model iPad. I even saw this tweet before I left work. Dammit.
Incoming…
Apple Watch Series 6
I also expect iPad (2020) and iPad Air (2020) https://t.co/9umqJqSzwq pic.twitter.com/quqalC6Alh
— Jon Prosser (@jon_prosser) August 26, 2020
I guess that tells you how work’s going for me at the moment.]
However this shakes out, we can feel confident in one thing- new Watches and iPads of some type or types are coming soon, possibly in just two weeks. Whatever your plans are on Labor Day, I would recommend keeping an eye on Apple.com on Tuesday, September 8th and Wednesday, September 9th. These devices could show up at the same time, or could be released on separate days, but I firmly believe they are coming based on Prosser’s confidence yesterday and today. But if you are looking to buy either a Series 6 Watch or a new iPad, be ready to go as soon as they hit the site. You never know how much stock Apple will have with things the way they are today.
Are you thinking about buying an Apple Watch Series 6, or whatever iPad arrives in two weeks? Let me know what you think in the comments below or on Twitter @iPadInsightBlog.
