After iPad Air, will Apple make an iPad Pro?

The biggest news from Apple's product launch event Tuesday was the new name for the company's flagship 9.7 inch tablet, the iPad Air.

The name is fueling speculation that Apple may be developing a high-end tablet called an iPad Pro for work tasks that are currently performed on PCs.

"The name change is likely intentional. Everything that Apple articulates it does for a reason," said Will Power, an analyst at RW Baird. "Developing an iPad that is better designed for productivity is something that could very well make sense."

Apple already makes this distinction with its line of laptop and notebook computers, calling the slimmer version the MacBook Air and the more expensive, heavier-duty model the MacBook Pro. It also offers a Mac mini, a small desktop computer, and uses that word to describe the 7.9 inch iPad.

"This would seem to leave room for a 'Pro' model at some point if a market for a higher performance tablet exists," Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, wrote in a note to investors after Apple unveiled the iPad Air Tuesday.

There may well be a huge market for a tablet that can do most of the tasks office workers need to get done, such as word processing, creating presentations and crunching numbers in spreadsheets.

This year, more than 300 million PCs are expected to ship, compared to just over 180 million tablets, according to Gartner estimates.

Apple has sold 170 million iPads so far and most of these devices are used for "consumptive purposes" such as playing games and watching video, rather than productivity, RW Baird's Power noted.

"Put that 170 million number in the context of the number of PCs out there," the analyst said. "There's still a significant growth opportunity for tablets and Apple is trying to find ways to further segment the market."

Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller declined to comment.