It hasn’t always been easy in recent years to guess Apple’s product release plans, but following new “regular” iPad generations unveiled in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, it felt safe to assume yet another budget-friendly rehash or upgrade of some sort was in the pipeline for 2021.
As the months went by, however, a radically redesigned sixth-gen iPad mini expected out by the end of this year shared the spotlight with a fifth-gen iPad Air and a duo of improved iPad Pros unlikely to break cover until 2022, leaving the ninth-gen iPad more or less up in the air.
