Of course it was planned obsolence, apple released the iPad 3 when it was not ready. They knew it wasn't ready but they had to
Release something to keep
Up with the yearly cycle, they couldn't wait until the fall. So they released the iPad 3 with shorter battery life, heating issues, screen issues, old
Connector, bigger, heavier an providing the exact same performance of an iPad 2 but with a retina display. They knew they would have to release another one some months later, So to avoid perception they called it "the new iPad", not iPad 3, not iPad 2S... Imagine the perception if they would have released an iPad 3 and 6 months later an iPad 4! It would had have a much bigger impact, so they changed the name
To
The new iPad and they announced it along with the iPad mini, so people didn't really talked about the new iPad 4, they were just talking about the iPad mini. How is a customer supposed to know the difference when you walk into the store, and see the new iPad with the exact same design, the same name, an the same price??? It's outrageous that some stores were actually selling the iPad 3 along with the 4 at the same price.