Yesterday, rumors began circulating that Apple would announce the iPad Air 2024 and iPad Pro 2024 on March 26. But before we get too excited about that prediction, the rumor has already been quashed with an X by Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman

The original rumor was by leaker Instant Digital on the Chinese social network Weibo, but the official release date It did not say. Similarly, Chinese news site IT Home reported some sort of announcement the same day, but as MacRumors points out, there may be confusion based on when the new third-party iPad case is set to hit Amazon.

Gurman is usually a pretty good source of Apple insider information. While he does not have a perfect track record, his reports generally turn out to be fairly accurate. Especially this close to the release date. So when he says we won't see the new iPad on March 26, we are inclined to believe him.

The question is, when will these new iPads be announced? We initially expected them to appear with the new MacBook Air M3, but that obviously did not happen. We also heard that the new iPad Air has already started shipping to the US ahead of the launch.

In his latest Power On newsletter, Garman reveals a few more details about what to expect. Apparently, the hold-up is due to the "iPadOS 17.4 variant" that the new iPad will carry. Not only will it not be ready until the end of the month, Garman claims that it could take "a couple of weeks" to install the software on the first batch of shipments.

With that in mind, Garman believes that the iPad will not actually be ready until "well into next month." This means that a new model could be available at the end of April. An official announcement could be earlier, but given that the MacBook Air M3 was released a few days after the MacBook Air M3 was announced, Apple could do the same thing again.

The iPad Pro 2024 model is expected to be the first iPad to launch with an OLED display, Apple's M3 chip, and a new version of the Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil. iPad Air 2024 is not so expected to change significantly, but there are conflicting rumors about whether this tablet will be available in a larger 12.9-inch size.

While we wait for Apple to officially announce everything, check out the iPad Pro 2024 and iPad Air 2024 hubs for all the latest news and updates