8GB iPad Prototype from 2011 Reveals Apple's Scrapped Budget Model

[UltimaKilo]

The iPad 3 was the worst iPad Apple ever released. Although the 256MB of RAM on the first gen model is pretty close to the worst. Both devices didn't run great, especially if you wanted anything to persist when switching between two apps. The iPad 2 at $399 was definitely the one to get.

Strong disagree. All the iPads up until the iPad 4 were pretty garbage.

 

[Blackstick]

Strong disagree. All the iPads up until the iPad 4 were pretty garbage.

Disagree. The iPad 2 was a sales legend with a beefy A5 to handle the non Retina display with aplomb. CPU twice as fast as the OG. It was amazing stuff. My grandma got one for her 80th birthday to watch all her encoded movies and it was on her bed when she passed at 88.

 

[aussie-reader]

anyone else getting flashbacks to when we got that insanely blurry image of an iPad nailed down to a board, like, ten minutes before the keynote? good times lmao

fascinating stuff! probably smart on their part not to release a model with only 8GB. ludicrous storage for a content consumption device.

the "board" was important as each one was unique so if photos leaked Apple was able to tell who had leaked the photo...

 

[BigMcGuire]

The iPad 3 was the worst iPad Apple ever released. Although the 256MB of RAM on the first gen model is pretty close to the worst. Both devices didn't run great, especially if you wanted anything to persist when switching between two apps. The iPad 2 at $399 was definitely the one to get.

If I remember right, the iPad 3 had the light bleeding issue, which, thanks to this site, I got free replacements from Apple. lol

Yep... https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/backlight-bleed-and-uniformity-issues-with-the-ipad-3.1343851/ LOL.

Found my old pic too! Hah!

 

[usmaak]

If I remember right, the iPad 3 had the light bleeding issue, which, thanks to this site, I got free replacements from Apple. lol

Yep... https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/backlight-bleed-and-uniformity-issues-with-the-ipad-3.1343851/ LOL.

Found my old pic too! Hah!

View attachment 2561268

I actually remember this thread because I went through something similar. I think that the iPad 3 might have been how I ended up on Macrumors. The screens on this thing were terrible. And it was funny to read all of the comments telling people that there was nothing wrong. I can’t remember how many of these I tried before calling it quits. None of them were any good unless you ignored all of the glaring screen errors like weird tints of all colors, backlight bleeding, dead and stuck pixels, and badly uneven brightness. I also had one with dust under the screen and I remember reading about someone who had a hair under the screen. 😂

 

[macduke]

anyone else getting flashbacks to when we got that insanely blurry image of an iPad nailed down to a board, like, ten minutes before the keynote? good times lmao

fascinating stuff! probably smart on their part not to release a model with only 8GB. ludicrous storage for a content consumption device.

Haha, you mean this thing?



I love how the top comment is "Just looks like a giant iPod touch. Nobody is going to buy that thing." and they've been AFK since 2013. Meanwhile I think Apple has sold at least 800 million iPads since 2010.

 

[usmaak]

Haha, you mean this thing?

View attachment 2561270

I love how the top comment is "Just looks like a giant iPod touch. Nobody is going to buy that thing." and they've been AFK since 2013. Meanwhile I think Apple has sold at least 800 million iPads since 2010.

Or when everyone was saying that nobody would want a big phone and now we have the iPhone Pro Max. And how a couple of years ago everyone was saying that foldable phones were ridiculous but now that Apple is working on one, lots of people can’t wait to line up and get it.

 

[beautyहमempty]

The iPad 3 was the worst iPad Apple ever released. Although the 256MB of RAM on the first gen model is pretty close to the worst. Both devices didn't run great, especially if you wanted anything to persist when switching between two apps. The iPad 2 at $399 was definitely the one to get.

I remember the iPad 3 all too well, especially since about half a year later, the new one came out..

 

[Shirasaki]

With the speed of Wi-Fi and cellular data now I’m surprised they don’t have devices that don’t have any local storage, everything is stored on the iCloud including apps 🤔
Maybe not yet but the technology eventually will get there where you’ll have unlimited storage in the cloud.

Such device would be the dream of all tech giants today, but even a tiny bit of unstable internet connectivity could render the device unusable or locks up. Also, you definitely don’t want to be in a scenario where you need to call 911 right now but your storage-less iPhone lost the connection and frozen, unable to even launch the phone app.

Also, removing storage chips altogether won’t save much money if that’s a concern. As for the bandwidth, you might have a burst of data transfer topping at 1Gbps for 5 min, but it would be ridiculous if the infrastructure has to maintain lets say 5000 Gbps, 24*7 because there are 50k iPhone users nearby, all downloading lots of stuff.

Oh and let’s not forget the coverage is abysmal in remote areas regardless of the country you are in, unless the country is quite small like Singapore.

 

[wanha]

That wasn't a budget model. 8GB of storage would have been a total con for users who bought it. Glad Apple decided to pass on it.

Considering he died in 2011, I wonder if scrapping this was one of Steve Jobs final calls before he moved on from this realm...

 

[svish]

Interesting to see this. Suddenly for a moment I thought 8 GB was RAM. Now it is time for all iPads to have 256GB as the base storage and all Macs to have 512GB as the base.

 

[Wanted797]

I bought it at launch and fully regretted it. I guess that Retina display was a bit too much for it to handle. Mere months later the 4th iPad launched sans 30-pin connector but with a processor that could actually push those pixels.

I was in the same boat. I had an iPhone 4 at the time and knew retina was coming. Held out on the iPad 2 for ages and got the 3. I was so dirty when the 4 came out only a few months later.

 

[thelion7]

The iPad 3 was the worst iPad Apple ever released. Although the 256MB of RAM on the first gen model is pretty close to the worst. Both devices didn't run great, especially if you wanted anything to persist when switching between two apps. The iPad 2 at $399 was definitely the one to get.

Omg, i remember my first ipad being the 3rd gen. It was awful! From memory it ran okay for the time but living in the UK i never got 4G as Apple limited the iPads to an LTE band that wasn’t used much if at all across the UK. So i paid for 4G but never got the service (restricted to 3G) and its battery sucked and took a decade to charge. Given it was the first ipad to have a retina display it needed the beefier battery but for some reason Apple didn’t think to increase charging speeds to compensate. Terrible device!