The year has reached the final quarter yet no official announcement about the iPad Air 3 has been made. However, speculations about the gadget continue with some reports claiming it will be out by 2017. Rumored specs and features continue to make the rounds as well.

The first iPad Air was released in 2013, followed by the iPad Air 2 in 2014. The iPad Air 3 has been expected to arrive since last year, but another year is about to end without the said gadget officially announced by Apple. There have been rumors suggesting the Air variant of iPad has been phased out but, without confirmation from the company, speculations about iPad Air 3 continue.

Reports reveal that the iPad Air 3 will be released in March 2017. Other reports also state that the tablet casing will be made of the 7000-series aluminium body, which will make it even thinner and lighter compared to its predecessor. It is also believed to have a Smart connector, an A10 chip, a 12-megapixel camera with True Tone flash. The gadget is further believed to support the 3D Touch technology and to have a wireless earphone jack, an innovation successfully introduced in the recently released iPhone 7 variants. It is further believed that iPad Air 3 will have the 9.7-inch screen size frame with 2048 x 1536 pixels like that in the previous model.

Other sources, on the other hand, point out that the lack of substantial updates to the anticipated MacBook Air has led many to believe that the Air brand has been scrapped, which means no iPad Air 3 is in sight. It also points out that Apple introducing a 9.7-inch iPad Pro may indicate that the company has no more plans to create new Air tablets.

Apple has an event coming up this month and, by then, consumers will know what gadgets to expect form the company in the near future.