2020: The iPad Pro offers rear-facing cameras with 3D detection [Updated]

Update – September 2nd: The elec again announced that Apple was planning to launch an iPad Pro with 3D sensing technology early next year:

In the United States, Apple is also considering adopting the ToF module for the first time in its tablet, the iPad Proearly next year. The ToF function will be available for iPhones from the second half of next year.

Update – August 27: In an email to MacRumors, a representative of Derkwoo Electronics stated that The elecThe report contains "misinformation" and "something that is not true about us". The elec has since deleted his article. Original story follows.

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Apple plans to release a new iPad Pro with 3D rear-facing cameras in March 2020, according to the Korean website The elec.

The report, citing unidentified sources in the sector, claims that Korean subcontractor Derkwoo Electronics will supply some of the components of the 3D sensor camera modules, including stiffeners and brackets. Mass production of these parts is expected to begin by the end of 2019.

3D rear-end detection is said to be powered by flight time technology, which measures the time it takes for a laser or LED to bounce objects into a room, providing a precise 3D map of the environment. .

While the iPhone is expected to adopt a similar system of flight time next year, the report suggests that the iPad Pro will adopt the technology six months before the iPhone. More specifically, the new iPad Pro the models will come out in March 2020, while the new iPhones will probably follow in September.

This corresponds to a January 2019 report from Bloomberg who claimed that a 3D laser-powered camera could debut first on a iPad Pro in the spring of 2020, but Bloomberg more recently, Apple has announced that it plans to update the iPad Pro range by the end of 2019; Apple's roadmap is therefore not entirely clear.

Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at TF International Securities, also said that there was a probability of more than 50% that the iPad Pro adopts flight time technology in the fourth quarter of 2019 or the first quarter of 2020.

Apple would break the precedent by refreshing the iPad Pro In March 2020, the tablet running for about 18 months since its first launch in November 2015, the 12.9-inch second-generation model was launched in June 2017, followed by third-generation models in November 2018.

It should also be noted that the iPad rarely receives new features before the iPhone, with the exception of the LTE on the iPad 3 before the iPhone 5 in 2012, and the iPad receive A4 and A5 chips before the iPhone.

Given that Bloomberg and japanese blog Mac Otakara wait a iPad Pro refresh by the end of 2019, it is possible that the March 2020 calendar is inaccurate and that the next fiscal year iPad Pro The models are launched in the fall, which would better space the updates of 2019 and 2020 and allow the rear 3D detection to start on iPhone.

Rear-facing 3D cameras arrive both on the iPhone and on iPad is not really surprising while Apple is more interested in augmented reality.

As additional reports appear, the iPad ProThe roadmap should become clearer.

Updated at 9:45 am PT, with additional information provided by Bloomberg and its analyst. Ming-Chi Kuo.