But this would probably not make much sense given the company’s standard way of doing things, as they typically decide their release dates entirely on their own. It would be strange to see Apple making such a major decision according to another product release, but then again, the company has changed their working style quite a lot lately.
Sadly, not all of their fans seem to agree that these changes have been for the better, and the company has actually been losing its grip on the market in some places. Many claim that leadership is the main culprit at the moment, but there is probably a much more complex network of issues behind the scenes.
Apple are still making quite the solid progress though, and the recently released iPhone 7 was proof that the company knows how to keep an active presence on the market despite what everyone might be saying.
The iPhone 7 actually performed surprisingly well in the eyes of some critics, so even though the iPad Air 3 is currently surrounded by quite a lot of negativity, we have no doubt that Apple can still pull off its release successfully if they decided to bring it to the market.
If they really are working on the device and are preparing it for a release within the first half of 2017, the official announcement should come in the beginning of the year. We probably won’t hear about it by the end of this one, as Apple wouldn’t want to interfere with their holiday sales, after all.