Apple's iPad Air 3 coming in first half of next year without 3D Touch, analyst claims

Ming-Chi Kuo is perhaps the world's most prolific creator of predictions and analyses regarding Apple's future plans. And now he's at it again.

According to the KGI Securities analyst, the iPad Air 3 will be outed sometime during the first half of next year. That could mean there's a chance it will join the Apple Watch 2 and the much-rumored 4-inch iPhone 6c at a March unveiling event.

Kuo goes on to say that the successor to the iPad Air 2 will not feature the 3D Touch tech that's built into the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, being billed as one of their main new (and differentiating) features. This looks to remain exclusive to the iPhones for the time being, and the reason why it's not headed to the next iPad Air reportedly has to do with production issues.

These have plagued the iPhone 6s and its bigger sibling too, with the 3D Touch components said to be "one of the most severe production bottlenecks in iPhone 6s supply chain". Perhaps for the same reason the iPhone 7 is rumored to come with 3D Touch hardware that will be incredibly similar to what's inside its predecessor.

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