Longtime Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn is currently testing a new, large-format iPad with the purportedly king-sized device slated to debut next spring, according to a new report out of Mainland China.
Many believe the new iPad Air could be joined by a larger-screened sibling as soon as next year.
The tablet would sport a display diagonal of either 11.4 or 12.9 inches and is in an advanced stage of testing, Chinese tablet news site PadÌÇÐÄVlog. The site says Apple could be targeting a March 2014 unveiling.
Rumors and predictions have been swirling around what many journalists have dubbed the "iPad maxi" for months. In July, the normally reliable Wall Street Journal got , saying that sources indicated to the paper that Apple has prototyped a new category of iPad with a display "slightly less than 13 inches diagonally."
The Journal's report was in September by word from a different Chinese publication that Apple had a 12-inch iPad in the works with another old collaborator, Quanta Computer. Among others, Quanta has had a hand in manufacturing iPods and recent MacBook Air units for Apple.
Analysts also expect to see a scaled-up iPad. Following the unveiling of the 64-bit A7 chip in the iPhone 5s, Barclays Capital's Ben A. Reitzes for a 13-inch iPad with a convertible clamshell form factor, saying that considerations for such a device may have spurred the seemingly early shift to a 64-bit architecture for iOS devices.