Apple iOS 9's New iPad Keyboard Layout Points To Imminent iPad Pro Release

Following the trend set by Microsoft and Samsung, Apple is also reportedly working to improve the display and internals of the upcoming tablet iPad Pro, also referred as the iPad Plus. To further corroborate the news, the recently unveiled Apple iOS 9 apparently comes with cutting-edge features like split-screen multitasking and a promising keyboard-related change.

Based on the report from Steve Troughton-Smith, known for delivering credible Apple-related insights, the iOS 9's keyboard will apparently be designed to “adapt to the increased real estate offered by the bigger iPad.” This means the keyboard of the upcoming tablet running Apple iOS 9 will reportedly adjust itself to larger display resolutions of the iPad Pro or iPad Plus. This is seemingly achieved by utilizing the additional space of the tablet, notes Phone Arena.

Going by the screenshot shared via Troughton-Smith’s Twitter account, a new row of keys can be seen on the top of the keyboard interface, likely improving the typing experience. The iPad Pro will reportedly be marketed as a business-centric device, along the lines of Microsoft Surface Pro 3 and Apple MacBook.

On the other hand, the alternate characters page will apparently be different from that of the current iPad layout, complete with more keys. Phone Arena says the default page (the first page) will come with a slew of symbols on the top, so presumably the current symbols list flowing up to three pages will be discarded. Thereby, Apple will stick to just two pages of characters for the iPad Pro. To top it off, Troughton-Smith has also confirmed the existence of iPad Pro by adding a “#ipadproconfirmed” hashtag on his tweet.

Here's a quick recap of the Apple iPad Pro specifications reported thus far: The slate is believed to feature a humongous 12.9-inch display and it will apparently flaunt a dimension of 223 mm x 306 mm x 7.2 mm. Other key features include quad speaker sound system, Force Touch technology, NFC, optional QWERTY keyboard, Type-C port and rapid charging option. It should be noted, however, that Apple has not confirmed the iPad Pro specifications thus far.

Lastly, here is the tweet from Steve Troughton-Smith showcasing the Apple iPad Pro keyboard change via iOS 9 update: