Apple finally outs an Air 2 heir, a new 9.7" iPad priced at $329

No matter how you slice it, Apple's iPad Air line was getting a bit long in the tooth, as the last non-Pro iPad, the Apple iPad Air 2, came as far back as October 2014. While it has certainly become clear by now that people don't upgrade their tablets as often as their phones, two and a half years is a reasonable pause before the next iteration. Surely enough, Apple just got to the airwaves to announce a new and improved regular iPad, like we expected for this week. 

There was speculation for a brand new 10.5" Pro entrant with skimmed bezels, but that may be happening at a later date, and a dedicated event, while Apple only issued a press release a few minutes ago for a new 9.7-incher and larger starting storage for the iPad mini line.

To wit, the new iPad 9.7" is a bit thicker and heavier than the Air 2, but comes powered by Apple's A9 chipset, which is an upgrade in horse power and frugality, a new Touch ID home key, and at a much lower starting price than the $499 we had until now. It will be available to order as soon as this coming Friday, too. The new iPad 9.7" (yep, that's how Apple refers to it) comes with a brighter 9.7-inch Retina Display of the same 2048 x 1536 pixels resolution as before. 

The iPad comes in silver, gold and space gray and starts at $329 (US) for the 32GB with Wi-Fi model and $459 (US) for the 32GB Wi-Fi + cellular model, and will hit Apple.com and Apple Stores for buying on March 24. A Benjamin more gets you the 128 GB models, too, any takers?