Apple has an education event next week that it doesn't plan to stream.
Still, the company has teased it will introduce “creative new ideas for teachers and students," which suggests it could introduce everything from a new MacBook to a new iPad with an upgraded Apple Pencil. Luckily, Bloomberg has given us some insight. It said we can expect a “low-cost iPad", which will be announced alongside new education software next week at the event at a Chicago, Illinois school.
Thanks to rumours, we suspected Apple has been developing a $260 budget iPad set to launch this year. Bloomberg also reported that a cheaper MacBook laptop is also in the works, and that it will replace the MacBook Air at under $1,000. Apple hasn't massively upgraded the MacBook Air in eight years, and the model it currently sells costs $999. But the cheaper MacBook isn’t expected until later this year.
If you spent a lot of time mulling the company's event invitation, you might've suspected that a new Apple Pencil is coming. As of now, only iPad Pro models support the first-generation stylus. KGI Securities' analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, has claimed (via MacRumors) that a "new low-price 9.7-inch iPad ... will likely support Apple Pencil," however. Kuo’s been a reliable source in Apple rumours in recent years.
Apple is expected to announce the new iPad and Apple Pencil at an event on 27 March. There is one other possibility, according to Kuo, that a “new low-price 9.7-inch iPad” - a successor to last year’s iPad - will appear. It's safe to assume that multiple cheap models of the iPad will appear with Pencil support. Pocket-lint, of course, will be at the Chicago show to bring you the latest news as it is announced.