i used to have an iPad 3, which i bought for full price on October 3. apple allowed me to return it and pre-order the iPad 4, which i did. i got the iPad 4 and in all honesty the difference was not very significant. app folders opened up a split second more quickly and web pages loaded maybe 1/2-1 sec more quickly. games played exactly the same (Metal Storm) and despite the A6X being twice as fast as the A5X, the A5 on a non-retina display still plays Metal Storm more fluidly. that Retina screen truly is a beast and i still feel that the A6X isn't fully adequate for the Retina. but i digress...that's a topic of discussion for another forum.
i saw that the iPad 3 refurbs substantially dropped in price right when the iPad 4 was announced. the iPad 3/4 64GB LTE that originally was $829 brand new was now $679... talk about a steep price drop ($150). i returned the iPad 4 and bought the iPad 3 version for $679. before i did this though, i thought about what my intentions were with this iPad 3. was i intending to hold onto it for 3 years or am i buying it to use for a year and then flip when the redesigned iPad 5 comes out? most likely it will be the latter. thus i concluded that going with the iPad 3 was the better way to go. an analogy to this situation would be trying to decide to buy a used car or a brand new car if you knew you would be selling it soon. most logical people would buy the used vehicle since after 1 year of ownership it will not have depreciated from the purchase price as much as the brand new one. going back to the iPad, the $679 iPad 3 64GB LTE iPad a year from now when the iPad 5 comes out, will probably have a resale dip to $600. the iPad 4 64GB LTE on the other hand, will likely drop from $829 down to the $679 price that the refurb iPad 3 used to be at due to downward pricing pressure from Apple.com iPad 4 refurbs. in my situation, after doing the simple math, the iPad 3 is the better way to go. however, not everyone's situation is the same as mine as they might not be planning to upgrade to the iPad 5. this scenario also doesn't end up being as extreme if you are comparing base model 16GB wifi models and you throw in Black Friday pricing too. that gap ends up being more narrow and then i might say just go with the iPad 4.
moving onto the other new features of the iPad 4. i have an iPhone 4S and i've owned iPods since 2005 so to be honest i won't miss the Lightning port - i'm too entrenched in 30-pin cables and accessories for the benefits of the new port (reversible) to negate the inconveniences. i have about a dozen 30-pin cables - several throughout the house, car, office, several at the lake house, briefcase, backpack, etc just to name a few. while wifi sync is great, it's not ideal for transferring 15GB of Season 2 of Game of Thrones to my iPad. i know eventually the Lightning cables will be generic, but they're not now and they won't be $0.99 probably for 2 more years. again like i said above, i am thinking about the now and for the next year.
not having a Facetime HD camera in the iPad 3 is OK - it's not like 720p will make my face more attractive. if anything it'll make it uglier lol. my girlfriend has the Mini so i at least get to see her in 720p when we occasionally Facetime which is maybe once every 2 months when i am on a business trip. if i was in a long distance relationship though, then i could see the 720p Facetime HD camera being a must.
so yeah, that's pretty much my reasoning why i went from an iPad 3, to and iPad 4, back to and iPad 3. i'm sure many will disagree with my logic and that's OK - that's why we're consumers...we each have our own opinion
