iPad 2 resolution will stay the same

I would say 50/50.
I believe little bit more than this author does. However, if iPad gets retina display, then I am buying it on Day 1. But, I agree with him about retina display. It is too early for apple to update so fast.


Double the Resolution
More Ram
Faster Prcoessor
More Storage
Front and back Camera
Sd card slot
Mini Display port.

That is a lot of upgrade in 1 year and I really doubt apple will do this.

We shall see, but only feature I am interested in is retina display, not camera. Facetime is not a big deal to me yet.

Yeah...all makes sense.

I totally buy this argument, I've kind of felt this way for awhile but didn't have the technical know-how to explain it.

His numbers all kind of confirm the feelings I've been having. I'd agree with it all.

Consider this...

The dual ipad camera rumours have been around since day dot. Everybody knew it was going to happen. Therefore those camera images are in current resolution as they were created a while ago.

Whereas a new whiz bang screen would have been a deeply guarded secret and as such has only just come to light.

But really, surely, there can't be a retina screen on the ipad yet. Mind blowing if it will be and they keep the same price points.

If Gruber is right, this will be very disappointing as many of us were dying to try out an iPad with that resolution. Either way it is just a matter of time, if not this year maybe next year.

One interesting tidbit: I've read an interview of an LG executive and he said Apple contacted LG about the production of the iPhone 4 Retina display back in late 2008 so that was about a year and a half lead time. It does seem a bit tight that LG could crank up the production of an iPad display so soon after the first iPad but I hope it comes soon enough be it this year or the one after.

I hope the speculation about the LCD being brought closer to the touchscreen glass are correct. I would very much like the LCD to be adhered to the glass so as to eliminate any possibility of dust getting under the glass. This has always been a pet peeve of mine with mobile devices and would like to not have to worry about it with the iPad 2. The only device I ever owned that had this feature was the Blackberry Bold 9000. It looked fantastic with the illusion that the glass and LCD were one in the same as well as never having to worry about dust.

Unfortunately it was a Blackberry so it had many, many other issues...

I would be very happy in lieu of retina display if we can get rid of any chance of dust under glass.

This will be my first iPad(first Apple product as well) so I can wait for retina until next year.

All along I have thought iPad2 would be a typical Apple mediocre unexciting upgrade.

Screen res the same low 1024x768 but slightly different tech to make screen and glass the same unit.
512MB ram - not 1GB
Gyro
Bit faster CPU
Bit faster GPU
Ram options the same
Tweak the speaker perhaps
Size and Battery life about the same.
Front facetime camera
Rear camera from iPod touch with no flash unit and lower spec than iPhone.

And that's it. Dull and unexciting leaving them open to attack/competition from the new Android Tablets.

Recent news have blown what I've been expecting out the water, and I'd love all the super news over the last 2 weeks to be true.

Not long to find out now!

Duh! I mean, come on people. When has Apple ever given us this many upgrades at once? The next iPad will be slightly faster and have cameras. That is all. I'd be willing to wager heavily on that.

The only way I'll upgrade is if it has a retina display... otherwise I'll way until iPad 3.

aurichie said:

I was waiting for John Gruber to sound out his sources on this ridiculous rumour of the new iPad screen resolution. In short, that 2048x1536 display is not happening. iPad 2 will have the same 1024x768 display as the current generation.

Here's a link to Gruber's story:
http://daringfireball.net/2011/01/cold_water_ipad_retina_display

Sound reasoning and confirmation from good sources.

Click to expand...

Dammit, you beat me to it.

In my opinion the only upgrade that really matters is more memory. The cpu/gpu for the most part are fine right now and handle what they need to handle outside of things such as javascript animation which could use a boost.

The iPad has always been a bit memory starved however and some apps are really pushing the limit of the current memory. Out of any possible hardware feature more memory will open up more possibilities for better apps. Retina display, faster cpu/gpu would not change much for app development. Keep in mind retina support in apps will no doubt raise the price of many of the apps. Developing content for 960x640 is a heck of a lot easier then developing content and graphics for 2048x1536. Apps would get larger in size as well since they would have in some cases now 4 versions of all the graphics for universal apps.

In fact outside of a significant memory upgrade what I think the iPad needs the most is just upgrades to IOS. The change from IOS 3 to IOS 4.2 was almost like having a new machine. I think IOS 5 could be a huge advance for the iPad 2.

As much as a camera seems silly on such a large device the larger screen does scream for a HD version of iMovie which could actually be kind of cool. Not sure how I would want to shoot any decent length of video with an iPad without the use of a tripod but the editing process would be much better then on the iPhone.

PhaserFuzz said:

Duh! I mean, come on people. When has Apple ever given us this many upgrades at once? The next iPad will be slightly faster and have cameras. That is all. I'd be willing to wager heavily on that.

Click to expand...

I'll take that bet just based on the fact that I'm pretty sure you would at least see either more storage at the same price points or the display upgrade, very similar to the iPhone 3GS to iPhone 4 upgrade. The addition of either an SD slot or Mini DP is quite minor on a device without too much side clutter, so one or both doesn't seem quite a stretch. I'm skeptical of the pixel doubling as well, but it's not beyond Apple to pull something like that off.

It could be an iPhone 3G x 3 display.

So 480x320 becomes 1440 * 960. This would allow original iPhone apps to scale properly and it is a reasonable resolution, although it is more likely that it will continue to be a 4:3 form factor, so we might see something like 1440 x 1050.

This seems entirely reasonable to me as it is below 1080p.

Either way, my iPad is going on eBay. Web browsing on it is just too slow, I need a faster, dual core CPU.

Whoa... whoa! Double pixels... all the way across the screen. Full-on double pixels. What does it mean? WHAT DOES IT MEAN? IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL! OH MY GAAAWWWDDDD!!! WOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOHHH!!!

Or, you know... maybe not.

The iPad doesn't need a higher resolution screen as badly as the iPhone did, but it's still something worth considering. I think the biggest problem here is the cost, the screen is an extremely expensive part of the device and I doubt they want to reduce their margins too much, as they already consider this price to be cheap! A screen with double the vertical and double the horizontal resolution would cost a lot more. I think that maybe in one more year the cost can be equivalent to the initial screen price, but not just yet.

They are also adding 2 cameras and probably better, faster hardware in there, so it's going to cost a lot more anyway. Add a much better screen and it may no longer be worth selling it for the current price...

Think different

Come on guys, lets think now
From this mornings Q1 report and i quote

"During the September and December quarters, we executed long-term supply agreements with three vendors through which we expect to spend a total of approximately $3.9 billion in inventory component prepayments and capital expenditures over a two-year period.

We made approximately $650 million in payments under these agreements in the December quarter, and anticipate making $1.05 billion in payments in the March quarter."

hmm? already making initial payments... 1.05 billion in March quarter? right before iPad 2 launch in April?? This isn't rocket science, it all strategic, and i think our high expectations might just come true. In my opinion the first iPad was an industry experiment, how well would it sell and should apple pursue it, like all 1st gen Apple products. iPads were sold better than Apple could have dreamed, and now they have the cash stockpile to win over the industry year after year, as long as they stay on top.

All this "bigger than 1080" talk and unrealism about this high of a rez is kinda silly/pulled out of ass'ishness.

Long story short, keep your chin up for hi res screen,
duel core A8?

Just make a high res display a BTO or special high-end version

smoking monkey said:

Consider this...

The dual ipad camera rumours have been around since day dot. Everybody knew it was going to happen. Therefore those camera images are in current resolution as they were created a while ago.

Whereas a new whiz bang screen would have been a deeply guarded secret and as such has only just come to light.

But really, surely, there can't be a retina screen on the ipad yet. Mind blowing if it will be and they keep the same price points.

Click to expand...

Have you seen how much money they've made last quarter? It would be a reasonable business move to accept decreased profit margins on iPad2 just so they can stay way out in front of the competition.
After all - they have had a year to work on this thing, and as you say closely guarded secrets are certainly to be associated with Apple.
I admit that I really, really want the double resolution screen rumour to be true, as it would make the iPad2 a killer e-reader. Can you imagine what would happen when Playbook, Honeycomb tablets, etc. are finally released and then a few weeks later Apple debuts a "retina" iPad? The competition would be destroyed. The general public don't care about CPU specs, memory, etc. the screen would be all anyone talked about.

There's one good reason to not support a very high resolution in the next iPad model:

Fragmentation.

For such high resolution, apple will likely increase the RAM to > 1GB (which is not an issue) + a very fast processor.

The main problem isn't this configuration. The main problem is that the first iPad shipped with a slightly lower configuration and therefore a big bump might create a visible fragmentation which apple wouldn't want.

So I guess, they would go slowly and keep the backwards compatibility for atleast a couple of years.

BUT:

If the iPad doesn't sport 512MB RAM and a very fast processor, it will again be on the side of a lower configuration spec and Apple wouldn't want that as of now.

So its really a design decision:

Does apple wish for apparent fragmentation (likely possible) in the coming 6-8 months of the product?
OR
Would apple want to be agressive and keep their products up to date.

Also, the "visible fragmentation" won't be visible until 4-8 months of the product but still will be a huge concern for apple.

PS: Avoid grammar and spelling mistakes; I'm in my office.
Cheers

I'm sure Apple leaked this rumor now, to calm down the hype and minimize disappointment when the iPad2 is actually announced (in 1024x768).

Pure speculation:

Last time when Jobs was on medical leave, Apple gave us the iPhone 3GS and the iPod Touch 3rd Gen. No design change, no major hardware change, just a boost of specs. I'm afraid this year will be the same.

Don't disappoint us Apple!

Piggie said:

A
And that's it. Dull and unexciting leaving them open to attack/competition from the new Android Tablets.

Click to expand...

well that's the point. if there is no serious attack from a competitor then there is no reason for apple to beef up the ipad. we are grabbing the ipads out of apples hands anyway.

Well of course it might not have a retina display. To me it has always been speculation and just some rumors from supposed sources. I have no doubt that said sources are "accurate" but ultimately nobody will no for sure until the day Apple announces it.

In my opinion, Apple would knock it out of the park with a retina display, Android tablets would take another two years to catch up with that.

Still, during the earnings call, Apple mentioned $3.9 billion deal with a "secret" parts supplier, whether that turns out to be a retina display, or something else entirely, the fact remains that the iPad 2 will definitely have something to wow people (besides the obvious thinner, faster, etc).

If anyone thinks not having a retina display would be a mistake, they have no idea the kind of product forecasting that Apple is capable of.

I suspected this new super res display to good to be true but tbh the display on the iPad is pretty good so perhaps a little tweak is all that is needed. Whats more important is the processing power and the RAM.

My other half loves the iPAd and I think its a great piece of hardware but its become outdated and slow quite quickly. Apple need to employ a meatier processor and really give it the RAM it deserves It needs to be faster than the iPhone or iPod touch. Only then will it break free from just being a larger version of either devices - especially if there is talk of a mini display port. So are to expect that it will drive a 27" Apple display?? Thats a big ask.

Apple need to keep the momentum up on the iPad and stay ahead or it may simply get passed by if the upgrades are minimal.

SBlue1 said:

well that's the point. if there is no serious attack from a competitor then there is no reason for apple to beef up the ipad. we are grabbing the ipads out of apples hands anyway.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately the iPad still doesn't have serious competition today.

Just like the iPhone back in early 2009.

How sad 2011 is for Apple users.