New iPad Expected At Apple Event, Cheaper MacBook Has To Wait

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An Apple event focused on education is coming soon, and many are speculating as to what we might see announced or discussed during the conference. Many are expecting we’ll see a new iPad announced at the Apple Education event – making it easier for students and teachers to get hands on the gear they need to teach and learn. Add to that a cheaper MacBook on the way, and it’s shaping up to be a good time to be a student.

This new information comes from sources cited by Bloomberg. The sources didn’t give us a good sense of the features we’ll see from the new iPad, but we do believe that we’ll see better performance – perhaps upgrading from the A9 processor currently in place with existing hardware. Since this education event is focused on education, it’s also possible that the new iPad will feature support for the Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard – features currently reserved for the more expensive iPad Pro. If Apple is able to offer the new iPad and cheaper MacBook at prices that are more accessible and with better features that are fine-tuned to the needs of educators, they may see a more significant adoption of their products at the elementary, middle, and high school level.

Apple already has an incredibly high user base at the college level, with MacBooks easily visible with a cursory glance across most campuses. However, at earlier education levels they’re far less common – perhaps due to the high price that even the cheaper models demand. With a cheaper MacBook potentially being announced in the near future, it might be easier to convince schools to make the jump towards purchasing computers from Apple rather than competitors like Microsoft – who currently have much more of a presence at the lower levels of education.

Outside of the announcement of a new iPad and the upcoming release of a new cheaper MacBook, it’s also possible we’ll see the announcement of the iBooks revamp. While the iBooks update isn’t necessarily only useful for educators, it may help schools better integrate digital reading into their classrooms by offering an update to an app that is, admittedly, becoming a little dated. With news of a new tab that will allow users to see curated content on a daily basis that may appeal to them, Apple stands to offer some competition to giants in the e-reading industry such as Amazon – although the chances of them making a significant dent in Amazon’s business is admittedly pretty low.

We’ll also likely see some grandstanding from Apple at this event as they brag about their partnership with Chicago schools – drawing particular attention to their Swift curriculums for both Chicago Public Schools and the City Colleges of Chicago. Swift is mainly used for iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS development, and Apple seeks to educate young people in a programming language that isn’t quite as common as bigger and more common options – perhaps hoping to reap the rewards in the form of talented programmers as these students grow up using Apple products.

Ultimately, we’ll have to wait until the upcoming event to see if we actually are receiving a new iPad or a cheaper MacBook, but it’s a near certainty that Apple will be making some sort of announcement at the event – so keep your eyes peeled.

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