Apple announces new iPad tablet

This story is part of Apple Event, our full coverage of the latest news from Apple headquarters.

The holiday shopping season is fast approaching, and Apple has begun lining up its new  devices including its latest iPad, which the tech giant revealed at an Apple launch event Tuesday.

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While the iPad isn’t nearly as popular or profitable as Apple’s iPhone, it’s becoming a more critical part of Apple’s lineup during the coronavirus pandemic, with millions of customers upgrading their devices for work-from-home and remote learning setups. Showing that strength already, the tablet market posted a huge gain in the second quarter this year, after two prior quarters of declines. The PC market has seen a similar boost, even amid a global economic slowdown.

Like many companies, Apple has struggled with manufacturing and delivery delays driven by the coronavirus, which has upended billions of lives around the globe. In February, before the disease was widely detected in the US, Apple warned that the virus was slowing manufacturing and supplies in China. The country is a primary hub for assembling most of Apple’s devices and has struggled with manufacturing delays for the wider tech industry as well.

Apple’s upcoming phone, called the iPhone 12 in rumors, is likely to be hit by similar delays. Apple said in June it expected that the new iPhone would be released “a few weeks” later than normal, which means potentially pushing the iPhone’s launch into October or November.