iPad Air 3 release date, rumors: Will a low-cost iPad Air 3 roll out in 2017?

The iPad Air is one of Apple's most popular product lineups, with its 9.7-inch variant having reportedly sold over 200 million units. And ever since the launch of the iPad Air 2 back in 2014, Apple supporters and tech enthusiasts have been clamoring for a new iteration — the iPad Air 3.

The iPad Air 3 was expected to be announced alongside the iPhone 6s back in September 2015. Instead, Apple launched the iPad Pro with a 12.9-inch and a 9.7-inch variant. Considering that the tech company has launched an iPad Pro model of the same size as the iPad Air, speculations have recently surfaced suggesting that Apple will be abandoning Air table lineup over the iPad Pro variants.

However, recent reports now suggest that Apple will be launching the iPad Air 3 along with two other iPad models this 2017.

As reported by MacRumors, industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has predicted that Apple will be introducing three iPads in 2017. For the new iPad Pro lineup, the company will reportedly release a 12.9-inch variant and a 10 or 10.5-inch mid-sized, bezel-free iPad Pro 2 model. Apple may also release a budget-cost 9.7-inch iPad, and this could be promoted as the iPad Air 3.

This rumored low-cost 9.7-inch iPad Air 3 model will reportedly be equipped with the A9 chip — the same chip used in the previous iPhone 6s model — and the chips will be manufactured by Samsung. Kuo also predicts that the 9.7-inch iPad will be the biggest seller among all three iPad models, with a 50 to 60 percent share in the total iPad shipments.

Aside from the A9 chip processor, rumors suggest that the iPad Air 3 could also feature a 12-megapixel camera and an improved Bluetooth capacity. It will reportedly run on 4GB of RAM and an internal storage capacity of 64GB, 128GB, or 256GB.

According to various speculations, the iPad Air 3 could arrive this year, sometime between April and June.