Hey, Apple! We can land a probe on a comet, but we can't have a 12.9in iPad 'until mid-2015'?

Apple has delayed plans to tout a fabled 12.9-inch iPad, if you are inclined to believe the latest round of speculation.

Analyst house KGI Research (via AppleInsider) said the MaxiPad will be pushed back from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2015.

It's claimed Apple's assembly lines and component suppliers have been too busy churning out new 27-inch Retina iMacs, causing delays to the manufacture of wide-boy iPad Pros.

This isn't the only bad news KGI foresees for Apple: the researchers predict that during, the first part of next year, there will be a dramatic decline in demand for iPads. Presumably because everyone's got a tablet by now.

These reports should be taken with a whole bag of salt at this point; Apple has yet to announce plans to make a larger screen iPad.

Not even the rumor mill can keep its stories straight at this point. Some reports have suggested that the 12.9in iPad idea has already been binned while others claim that the new iPad will actually be a slightly smaller 12.2in model and arrive in the third quarter of next year.

So long as Apple remains the most successful and secretive company in the consumer electronics space, this sort of speculation is going to continue. ®