Next-Generation iPad and iPad Mini Rumored for March Launch

aurelios69 said:

Asus is wayy worse than apple when it comes to lauch products, they have a huge number of tablets in the market, and look at he padphone example....

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And was the samsung who provided you the LATEST android version ?
Maybe in the next moth they will do that.

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Samsung don't have to, Google provides the OS, and honestly id rather have stock android than touchwiz anyway, Don't confuse the maker of the handset, with the maker of the OS however, unlike apple, the two are not the same.

Google provides the os for the samsung, you cant just download the android os and flash it on the device, it is dependant either the modding community or the samsung...

kas23 said:

You didn't read my post carefully. I never put forth a scenario where Apple would have retina Mini instead of the "regular" one. So I can't really comment on that. My post you responded to put forth a scenario of releasing a Retina Mini along side of the current iPad Mini to ease the demand of the current Mini, which it would undoubtedly do. And if Apple charged a sufficiently high price for the Retina Mini, that in itself would suppress the new Retina Mini demand. Thus you would have 2 different models that each have a lower demand than the current iPad Mini.

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People complain the Mini is too expensive and you wanted them to have an even more expensive retina Mini? I don't think even Apple could withstand the bashing that would come from such a move. They had 2 choices: either sell this Mini now or wait until they could launch a retina Mini later(early 2013 at best) losing the Christmas season and the high demand for iPads.



That makes no sense,you'd have a more complex assembly line for less profit and let's face it they wan't the money,I think they might do what you're saying of the non-retina/retina lineup after they launch the retina-mini selling the regular Mini at a lower price(a la iPad 2/iPad with retina display) or just keep the next Mini and stop selling the previous one(iPad->iPad 2)

DMH3006 said:

People complain the Mini is too expensive and you wanted them to have an even more expensive retina Mini? I don't think even Apple could withstand the bashing that would come from such a move. They had 2 choices: either sell this Mini now or wait until they could launch a retina Mini later(early 2013 at best) losing the Christmas season and the high demand for iPads.

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Price bashing aside, the public spoke loudly and clearly that the Mini was price appropriately. Look at the demand. In practice, people obviously do not think it was too expensive. In fact, Apple probably could have priced it even higher and the demand still would have outpaced the supply. As for a Retina Mini, I guarantee you people would definitely pay more for it. It's like the Holy Grail right now.

DMH3006 said:

People complain the Mini is too expensive and you wanted them to have an even more expensive retina Mini? I don't think even Apple could withstand the bashing that would come from such a move. They had 2 choices: either sell this Mini now or wait until they could launch a retina Mini later(early 2013 at best) losing the Christmas season and the high demand for iPads.
(iPad->iPad 2)

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Price aside, Apple completely let down retailers here over the entire Xmas
sales period. It appears the apple store hoarded mini's and shipped nothing
but direct sales for the last 6 weeks.

DMH3006 said:

People complain the Mini is too expensive and you wanted them to have an even more expensive retina Mini? I don't think even Apple could withstand the bashing that would come from such a move. They had 2 choices: either sell this Mini now or wait until they could launch a retina Mini later(early 2013 at best) losing the Christmas season and the high demand for iPads.



That makes no sense,you'd have a more complex assembly line for less profit and let's face it they wan't the money,I think they might do what you're saying of the non-retina/retina lineup after they launch the retina-mini selling the regular Mini at a lower price(a la iPad 2/iPad with retina display) or just keep the next Mini and stop selling the previous one(iPad->iPad 2)

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Sit down and have a glass of ice water . What you said made absolutely no sense given how well the mini is selling now. This is a rant that make sense before the sales started. You may think it is overprice and won't buy one. But there are enough buyers who want Ipad mini and it is supply constrained. Market determine price and consumers are speaking loud and clear about their preference.

And what more complex assembly line? The parts are shipped from supplier to Foxconn factories and a retina LCD is no different than the LCD that is used in Ipad mini. Foxconn has 13 factories in China now and they are building multiple devices for multiple companies. Having one more product with different part is a piece of cake if Foxconn are given some advance planning time. That is their main business after all.

Part cost will determine what Apple will do. The LCD panel used in mini is rumored to be as expensive as the one use in Ipad 4 because of the yield problem. And Ipad mini gross margin absolutely suck. Apple management highlited the problem in the last quarter conference call. If changing to new part reduce the cost of mini, we will see a new version of mini + a new retina mini at a higher price. If the yield problem get resolve, we will see the current mini + a retina mini. If Apple find enough buyers, why should they sell the mini any cheaper just because Nexus and Kindle Fire HD are priced lower?

apolloa said:

You mean apart from all those hands on videos and photos of iPhone 5 parts long before it was released? Same as the iPad Mini parts?

Say what you want about rumours but MANY more turned to be true then anyone thought last year, the new Apple obviously isn's so worried about leaks, it probably plants most of them!

Apple needs to do something to stay ahead hence the possibility of a 6 month release cycle. Customers don't think that, but Apple may well do.
But I think the Mini is a joke with no retina screen so.. but I have a Nexus 7 so maybe biased.
However seeing as the iPhone 5 has a tri-core GPU then Apple really had no excuse for no retina on the Mini, and when Power VR's series 6 GPU hits then you could probably had a dual core version and smoke all the quad core 5 series GPU's out there in the current iPhones and iPads.

Maybe they are waiting for Igzo and series 6 GPU's? But if the Mini doesn't get Retina in March I'll be surprised. Then again maybe they will just update teh iPad.

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True, the iPad mini and iPhone 5 events held no surprises. But the original comment implied this was the case from WWDC 2010.

AZREOSpecialist said:

They do? Why is that? Is that more beneficial to you or Apple?

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Personally, I would like Apple to give at least a roadmap just so companies, school districts, etc. can better plan what to buy when. I have a friend who works as the director of technology for a school district. A few years ago, he finally convinced his board to buy an Xserve for the district. Barely a week or two after, Apple announced they were discontinuing the Xserve.

I know, the secrecy helps build hype in the consumer market, and that sells more products. I also know Apple wants to cater more towards the consumer because consumers buy more than enterprises do, but that doesn't make enterprises less important, IMO. [/rant]

DesertEagle said:

But it still maximizes the profits for Apple, doesn't it?

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yes but it kills/brand the product over time..

Really hoping the mini gets the display update (and hopefully general spec update) in March. Having to wait until Q3 as some predictions have mentioned seems too long to wait for what really should've been the launch product. I have no doubt in my mind that Apple could've released a Mini with retina display sooner, and that they just didn't think it'd sell at a price point people would be willing to shell out for at that time.

guzhogi said:

I know, the secrecy helps build hype in the consumer market, and that sells more products. I also know Apple wants to cater more towards the consumer because consumers buy more than enterprises do, but that doesn't make enterprises less important, IMO. [/rant]

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It is more than secrecy. Technology is moving so fast that there is a real risk of some component does not make the delivery schedule or have yield problem. If you publish your road map ahead of time, what are you going to do if one of the component does not make it?

Apple also run the risk of competitor front run your order or pulling their product ahead of Apple product. In 2Q/3Q 12, Qcom was short of the 28 nm chip and threaten that derail Iphone 5 launch. Everyone want to get their hand on the same chips. As it turns out Iphone 5 use MDM9615 which is one of the hot 28nm broadband chip. Why should Apple publish the road map to make their own life harder?

This is an article about the chip shortage back in April:

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2012/04/19/will-qualcomm’s-chip-shortage-delay-the-iphone-5/

In a note to clients Thursday, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said Qualcomm’s supply issue “likely pushes the launch of the iPhone 5 to October,” which would put it on pace with last year’s fall launch of the iPhone 4S. He added that the launch timing for Apple “is irrelevant, as long as the iPhone 5 upgrade is compelling.”

Scott Craig of BofA Merrill Lynch had a different view, arguing in a note that Qualcomm’s delays should not affect Apple, “as we do not believe Apple had planned on using Qualcomm’s 28nm chipsets (including MSM8960) for its products near term.” He noted that Apple does not need 28nm chips simply for the “non-integrated discrete broadbands from Qualcomm” to deliver an LTE-based iPhone

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Please please please

School starts in March and I am looking to purchase an iPad. I'm hoping to buy the next upgrade one because I think the one out in the market right now could be lighter. If they don't release the a new ipad in march I'll wait until the next upgrade

Hornhonker said:

Price aside, Apple completely let down retailers here over the entire Xmas
sales period. It appears the apple store hoarded mini's and shipped nothing
but direct sales for the last 6 weeks.

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They have only just become more widely available to order online here from non Apple stores - not sure about in shop availability, I bet it's still quite hard to get one that way.

I'm not sure if this is just pure nonsense, but this rumor still claims June July release for the Mini 2 and iPad 5

http://thecoffeedesk.com/news/index...se-june-or-july-rumored-specs-features-price/

MagnusVonMagnum said:

I mean you cannot update to the latest operating system for iOS and THAT means you CANNOT and I mean CANNOT get most newer software packages since most do not support iOS 3.x any longer. What good is a 1st Gen iPod Touch without software? I'm stuck with the software I got for it two years ago and using it as a music player (most videos won't play either unless they are at a specific resolution whereas newer iPods can play virtually any resolution) so its function is severely limited. Apple could at least have an App Store sort by OSX 3.x and keep older software versions that are compatible with it available (i.e. I could still get most older versions of many software packages for my PPC PowerMac because most sites keep older versions around for just that sort of thing. The same is not true of iOS devices. Once you can no longer get the latest OS version, software will start drying up very quickly.

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Look at Whited00r, I have an iPhone 1st Gen that runs 90% of iOS 6, including a working but janky siri clone.

It also includes the App Time Machine installed to download 3.x apps, works great!

Aluminum213 said:

Thanks for proving your ignorance by saying "ask iPad 2 owners". The iPad is 3 years old, obviously that's outdated


But saying iPad 2 owners are feeling the burn from apps is just wrong. The iPad 3 runs slower then the iPad 2, the iPad mini uses the same tech as the iPad 2 and NOTHING takes advantage of the iPad 4 new A6X chip. iPad 2 owners can still run every app perfectly fine. So any app developer that has an app that doesn't run we'll on an iPad 2 will be screwing out iPad 2, iPad 3 and the millions of new iPad mini owners. Again, NOTHING takes advantage of the iPad 4 new power

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2011 + 3 = 2014

Do much math?