IPad Rumor of the Day: iPad 3 in March, iPad 4 in October
iPad 4 in October" >After announcing that the iPad 3 would be announced in January at Macworld, Digitimes was rapidly discredited, but that hasn’t stopped the site from churning out rumor after rumor.
Today’s rumor suggests that Apple will release the iPad 3 on schedule in March, but will follow that release with an even better iPad 4 just seven months later in October.
The iPad 3 is expected to come with a high resolution (1536 x 2048) display and a longer battery life, but Digitimes says that the rest of the iPad 3’s specs won’t be as impressive.
This is slightly counterintuitive to other information we’ve read about the iPad 3, which has it shipping with a faster processor (something Digitimes itself has said numerous times), an HD front facing FaceTime camera, and an 8-megapixel back camera. An increase in RAM is likely as well, as it is needed to support a higher resolution display.
An upgrade to nearly all of the hardware in the iPad 3 doesn’t sound like a “not so amazing” release. Digitimes says that March’s iPad 3, coupled with predicted price cuts to the iPad 2 (dropping the price to $399 or below), will be able to fend off competition from vendors in the early half of the year.
An April release of the Google Tablet, which is being designed to compete with the Kindle Fire, will supposedly put increased pressure on Apple. The iPad 4, with “much upgraded hardware specifications and integrated applications” will be released in October to compensate, and to compete with the Windows 8 Tablet that is also set to be released in the 4th quarter to 2012.
I wouldn’t put much stock into this rumor. One of the key aspects to Apple’s success is its continual ability to support its older devices, and the release of multiple tablets in a year would quickly make that unfeasible. Additionally, it just doesn’t sound like a smart idea, as it would be tough to stick to that kind of upgrade cycle and it would incense customers who like to have the latest and greatest.
While Apple has been more unpredictable with release dates, it has not updated its mobile devices twice in one year and has no precedent (or need) to do so in 2012.