Apple has hinted at a release date for iOS 18.1 with Apple Intelligence support

Apple made a major announcement today, indirectly hinting at a release date for iOS 18.1 with Apple Intelligence. While the company previously announced that iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1 and macOS 15.1 will be released in October, today a press release for the new iPad mini provided an additional clue to the release date.

An additional clue to the release date was revealed today.

New iPad mini and iPadOS 18.1 update

Apple today unveiled a updated iPad mini with the A17 Pro chip and support for Apple Intelligence, but a press release indicated that Apple Intelligence features won’t be available immediately, but with a future software update, iPadOS 18.1. Pre-orders for the new iPad mini are already open, but the devices won’t start arriving to users until October 23.

PadOS 18.1.

Since iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1 are due out in October, it would be logical to assume that they would arrive in time for the launch of the new iPad mini. However, Apple has said that Apple Intelligence will only be available after the update, which rules out the possibility of iOS 18.1 being released before October 24.

The likely release date for iOS 18.1

Based on this information, we can assume that iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1 and macOS 15.1 won’t be released until October 28 or just after that date. Since Apple rarely releases updates on Friday, the most likely date could be Monday, October 28.

MacOS 15.1 Monday, October 28.

Why Apple decided not to wait for Apple Intelligence to be ready before launching the iPad mini remains unclear. However, it can be assumed that, as with the launch of the iPhone 16 without AI features, the company felt it could do the same with a less popular product such as the iPad mini.

And it’s not clear why Apple decided to wait for Apple Intelligence to be ready before launching the iPad mini.