Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, he of the usually reliable predictions, has released an analyst note to his subscribers seemingly confirming the widely held opinion that Apple will not announce the new iPad models during the upcoming September 10th event, but at a separate event later in the year.
The note makes supply chain forecasts suggesting that assembly production of the iPad 5 andiPad Mini 2 will start with low-volume production this month, and enter mass-production in the final quarter. If the tablets were to be announced on 10th September, we would expect them to be much further advanced in the production cycle by now.
Again meeting widely held expectations, Kuo says both iPad models will use the A7X processor, a considerable bump over the A5-based mini.
9to5Mac notes a couple of surprises in the note, such as the suggestion that the rumored ‘low-cost’ non-Retina mini will not be released until next year, and that the iPad 2 will apparently continue to be produced.
Foxconn is said to be the sole supplier of the iPad 5, with Foxconn and Pegatron splitting iPad Mini 2 production.
