Taiwan supply chain sources are claiming today that Apple will introduce an all-new 10.5" iPad to their line up next year. Apple currently offers a 7.9" iPad mini, a 9.7" iPad Air 2, a 9.7" iPad Pro and a larger 12.9" iPad Pro. Production is rumored to be starting in next month.

The sources claim that Apple's reasoning for introducing the new 10.5" iPad is mainly because 10-inch and larger tablets have been very in both education and enterprise sectors in the U.S. Reportedly for those markets its existing 9.7-inch iPad Air 2 may be too small and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is currently too expensive for such procurement.

The 10.5-inch iPad will be equipped with Apple-developed CPU A10X which is also used in 12.9-inch iPad Pro, the sources noted.

Shipments of 10.5-inch iPad will reach two million units in first-quarter 2017 and may reach 5-6 million units in the year, the sources said.

Apple will also launch lower-price versions of the 9.7-inch iPad to compete with Android models, the sources noted. 

Apple Continued to Dominate the Tablet Market Worldwide in Q3 2016 and Apple's planned Q1 updates are bound to keep Apple's iPad line-up fresh to help it continue its market leadership.

Apple's CFO noted during the company's last financial conference call that "For the September quarter, Apple had 82% market share in tablets over $200,"  which is a staggering statistic that is overlooked by all analytical tablet market reports.

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