by It’s been a while since we’ve seen a good mockup of an unannounced Apple product, but never fear — some unidentified case makers for the next iPad in China or Japan allegedly have us covered. It’s not clear if the photos are entirely accurate (although it’s touted as a “perfect replica”), but they look as though they could be authentic owing to the relatively few deviations from the existing model.
Source: Nowhereelse.fr
The images popped up on various online sales sites this morning with flashy watermarks, although French site Nowhereelse.fr managed to snag some that show the units in their natural state. Based on the images, the most notable deviation from the current iPad Air is inclusion of Touch ID, which hardly comes as a surprise on account of Apple’s increased focus on the feature at WWDC.
Closer inspection reveals other surprises. The volume controls have been recessed into the iPad itself, for one, and a new hole that looks like it might fit a SIM card eject tool is positioned slightly above them. It’s currently unclear what purpose it serves, although some commentators have suggested it might be an additional microphone.
“Additional” is the key word here, as there appears to be another microphone near the rear camera lens such as we find on the iPhone and iPod touch. The power button is recessed as well, suggesting that Apple might embrace this style of design more broadly in the future. It also might lend some credibility to the mockup — after all, it was reportedly made by case makers, and recessed controls would be tough to reach with almost any case design to date.
All in all, though, it’s not a significant visual shift from the current model. The most noteworthy stuff for the next iPad Air is thought to be on the inside, whether it’s the rumored A8 chip, the improved camera sensor, or iOS 8 itself. We’ll likely get to learn if all of this is true sometime this fall.
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