Rumor question: New Ipad in Feb/Mar Ipad 3 in Oct?

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

i just got an iPad 2 that my grandparents didn't want for christmas... i'm thinking of selling it and jumping on the 3 when it comes out...

would that be worth it? somehow the likelihood of the A6 is not as great for March as it is for Sept. Though I'd like to dismiss the 2 iPad rumors, this time its more serious than last year. Anyone who believed the iPad fall refresh was smoking crack. Quad core just simply wasn't there yet. But at the same time why stagger feature upgrades? I believe HD requires A6, and so it makes no sense for them to release HD now with the same A5 or even a speed bump. If they did the new March iPad would be significantly slower and couldn't play many high res games until A6 is ready.

 

[MaxFusion16]

why wouldn't the A6 be ready?
I haven't read anything regarding production issues with the new quad-core process, if nvidia can crank out tegra 3 quad-core chips, i'm sure apple can manage as well.

retina display is the only unknown here, they may hold off on the retina display till next gen, but A6 is pretty much a given.

 

[Eug]

why wouldn't the A6 be ready?
I haven't read anything regarding production issues with the new quad-core process, if nvidia can crank out tegra 3 quad-core chips, i'm sure apple can manage as well.

retina display is the only unknown here, they may hold off on the retina display till next gen, but A6 is pretty much a given.

Tegra 3 is 40 nm.

So, actually Tegra 3 serves as a pretty good example as to why quad-core low-power ARM isn't quite there yet. I don't think Apple would stoop to putting a 40 nm A6 in the iPad.

 

[Illusio]

I have a nagging feeling that Apple is going to announce new products soon myself. It's why I am unloading my iPad 2 now, while it's worth something.

Apple products have great resale value. Even when the iPad 3 comes out, they iPad 2 will still go for quite a bit. I'd guess you could still get at least 75-80% of its value.

 

[Eug]

I wouldn't pay 75% for a used iPad 2, esp. if it had minimal warranty. And yeah, resale value does drop significantly when a new model comes out. This is esp. true with the iPad, because may just drop the price $100.

So, even if a $499 iPad 2 (with say a few months warranty) could be sold today for $375 (75%), if Apple drops the price of the iPad 2 to $399 along side a $499 iPad 3, then suddenly that iPad 2 may just be worth only $300.

 

[amdhunter]

Apple products have great resale value. Even when the iPad 3 comes out, they iPad 2 will still go for quite a bit. I'd guess you could still get at least 75-80% of its value.

I couldn't dump my iPad 1 for $200 the day the iPad 2 was announced...lol

 

[MaxFusion16]

I couldn't dump my iPad 1 for $200 the day the iPad 2 was announced...lol

apple products take a temporary hit when new ones come out, because everyone's dumping the old ones to upgrade. wait a few weeks, prices will go back up. ipad 1's still selling for over $300 on ebay right now, 2 years after it came out.

 

[micrometers]

my hunch is that the iPad this spring will likely be a "2s" release like the iPhone 4s.

 

[micrometers]

why wouldn't the A6 be ready?
I haven't read anything regarding production issues with the new quad-core process, if nvidia can crank out tegra 3 quad-core chips, i'm sure apple can manage as well.

retina display is the only unknown here, they may hold off on the retina display till next gen, but A6 is pretty much a given.

it seems like it is far tougher to manufacture a "retina display" than make a new chip, so I vote a processor upgrade.

I mean, the yields must be atrocious.

 

[Patranus]

my hunch is that the iPad this spring will likely be a "2s" release like the iPhone 4s.

I disagree.

I think Apple likes the Spring/Fall release schedule for the iPad/iPhone.
Give time for people to save up for their new toys.

 

[runawayprisoner]

it seems like it is far tougher to manufacture a "retina display" than make a new chip, so I vote a processor upgrade.

I mean, the yields must be atrocious.

Samsung already got there with their fabs, so I believe the QXGA display is a given.

Apple also got their high-res images ready for the higher resolution in iOS. It'd be silly of them to prepare UI assets for a display that doesn't exist.

Curiously, though, they also got the same assets ready for OSX Lion, so I expect the same doubling to happen to Macs as well. And it's not even like we never got high-ppi displays. They were just too expensive for consumers.

 

[micrometers]

I'm sure that at some point they do plan on a display upgrade. But I doubt that it will be available this spring. Maybe later in the fall.

I dunno, are pixels visible on an iPad 2? I thought that retina on the iPhone was pretty big.

 

[MrX8503]

The iPad2 pixels are pretty visible. As a result, the screen is quite blurry. I also await for a retina tablet.

 

[mingsoup]

I read lots of text on the device and I find it great. I personally don't see the need for more resolution.

 

[scootermaster]

Still remains to be seen, but I'll just leave this here:

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/01/13...ssor-and-retina-display-set-for-march-launch/

 

[daws91]

I think an march/april launch is probably going to be it. Also a cheaper iPad3 would make sense. If you have a look at the iPhone sales Apple had in q3 and q4 2011 when they really started of with price fragmentation on the iPhone you can just tell that it worked. Why would they not do it with the Ipad at this point, now facing similiar fierce competition.

 

[oogabooga]

The iPad2 pixels are pretty visible. As a result, the screen is quite blurry. I also await for a retina tablet.

Would be nice, a very high resolution screen and ideally a device fast enough to render website properly on it.

 

[scootermaster]

I think you've got it backward.

It'd look at it like this:

Feature / % chance of happening:
--------------------------------------

Siri / 99%
Better Camera / 95%
Retina Display / 85%
Some sort of speed bump (but not A6) / 70%
A6 / 50%
4G LTE / 5%

Siri - 100%
A6 - 100%
Better Camera - 95%
Retina Display - 90%
Batter/Thicker - 60%
LTE - 20%
Thunderbolt - 10%
3D - 5%

Looks like I'm the big winner here.

Sad about the A6 thing. =[

 

[bearxor]

I'm not. I suspect the A5X will have SOMETHING. It could be quad-core, it could be a GPU bump to the MP4. More RAM? There will be something.

And honestly, the A5 is a top SOC at the moment. Even the GPU would hold up for another year.

Let's say it's a speed bump to 1.2ghz DC with the same MP2 and 1GB of RAM. It's still not a slouch and will be more than fast enough to compete with SOC's until next year. Still thinking this is more of a iPad 2S than it is an iPad 3.

 

[scootermaster]

I'm not. I suspect the A5X will have SOMETHING. It could be quad-core, it could be a GPU bump to the MP4. More RAM? There will be something.

And honestly, the A5 is a top SOC at the moment. Even the GPU would hold up for another year.

Let's say it's a speed bump to 1.2ghz DC with the same MP2 and 1GB of RAM. It's still not a slouch and will be more than fast enough to compete with SOC's until next year. Still thinking this is more of a iPad 2S than it is an iPad 3.

I meant big winner in the prediction department. I'm the big loser, in that I'd managed to be convinced that quad-core was coming (along with Retina AND LTE AND blah blah blah) and ignored my own instincts that Apple really had no reason to do all of that. So I got my hopes up for a quad core iPad and it's unlikely that'll be the case.

I'm in the market, so I'll likely be buying in a couple of weeks either way, but it's disappointing to see that it'll likely still be dual core.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Why would Siri be on the iPad?

 

[scootermaster]

Why would Siri be on the iPad?

1. Because they can?
2. Implementing Siri as a "feature"/selling point is probably the cheapest bump they can give the iPad. It doesn't really cost them anything.

I'm not sure they'll go to war with just the retina display and better cameras.