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The level of snark and scorn which greeted the OP's thesis is disappointing, but hardly surprising. Obviously many of the people who habituate this forum are incapable of having a rational discussion on any topic that varies from the party line. A few news items from dodgy Asian websites and its automatically assumed that the next iPad will have a retina screen, and woe betide anyone who tries to question it.

The fact of the matter is that there are a number of very good reasons why the next iPad won't have a different screen resolution.

To begin with, of all the things that could use improvement on the iPad, screen resolution barely makes the list. Most people older than about 20 or so would have a very hard time indeed visually noticing a difference in pixel size, especially at the somewhat greater distances we hold tablets as opposed to smartphones.

Secondly, people seem to be ignoring the very real costs that a higher resolution screen will impose. Not just a higher manufacturing cost - which will either eat into Apple's margins, or create pricing opportunities for its rivals - but also costs in terms of battery life and processor cycles.

There is also the issue of fragmentation. There are currently about 70 million iPads in consumers hands using current resolution. A retina-class resolution is going to impose at least some level of additional coding on App developers.

There is the issue of content - and especially High Definition video content. Downloading a movie with four times the pixels (to say nothing of storing it) is going to take a lot longer than present resolution files do.

Lastly, one needs to ask if a "Retina" class display is going to be in Apple's best interest. Is it going to give them a unique marketing bullet point, one that rivals from Samsung or Acer cannot meet? The answer to that question is obviously not. Samsung - for all its faults - is probably a world leader in high-definition video display technology. Is it really in Apple's interest to get into a "spec war" with Samsung?

It certainly is possible that Apple has developed technological and engineering solutions to the issues I've raised. Maybe some of Apple's tremendous investments in capital goods over the past couple of years have secured for them a unique high-definition supply source. Maybe the next generation of GPU chips will ameliorate the processing burden super-HiDef video will create.

But I think its at least worth while considering the possibility that the next iPad won't have a retina class display. Otherwise I predict howls of outrage and disappointment from the armchair computer engineers who hang out at Mac Rumors.

I'm over 40 and cannot wait for Retina display on the iPad. I don't want to see pixels, I want to see a clean image, text, etc. I'm baffled that you do not see a difference between the pixelated book or a website on an iPad vs an iPhone 4 for example. For everyone that I know of that has an iPad/is planning to buy an iPad, higher-res display is in the top 3 wants. Heck, my own mother, whom I've been trying to switch from an old Powerbook to an iPad, looked at mine and said it was "fuzzy" when trying to read on it.
 
pixel-doubling is not "two or three times" that of anything. It is *exactly* twice the pixels on X and on Y, and you get *exactly* the same image as before. Pixel-doubling is *not* upscaling, because it is *not* interpolating color at all. There are *no* fractional pixels. There is no calculation of upscaled edges or anything. Check back on the fine post that showed a grid with a black pixel, and then that same grid pixel-doubled, then you'll understand.

Again, as Apple did for the iphone 4 when it pixel-doubled the res of the iphone 3, there is an OS framework which handles both old-res and new-res content at 1:1 physical scale, without resampling.
 
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Well, Asus is displaying a new Transformer Prime with 1080p resolution. 2012 will be the year of HD/retina displays. So much for the OP's predictions.

End of Line...
 
Well, Asus is displaying a new Transformer Prime with 1080p resolution. 2012 will be the year of HD/retina displays. So much for the OP's predictions.

End of Line...

Yup. They must really be ramping up the high resolution display production there judging by tablets from Asus, Lenovo, etc with high res displays. A Retina iPad is pretty much a given now methinks.
 
:confused:

I can't understand what happed today. How can Apple release the new iPad when the web isn't ready for 2048 x 1536 yet?

;)

Btw, epic thread, Mengchen81!
 
I know it clogs the board but seeing these threads where the OP claims to know so much more than us mere mortals is pretty funny.
 
At first I was confused, then saw the original date and immediately thought:
tumblr_m0jcu0PBZM1qmuwk3o1_500.png


Looks like someone is going to have to admit being horribly wrong. ;)
 
Proven lol, 2048-by-1536 resolution display with quad core graphics, perfect.

It's true though, in the demos you actually can notice a bit of sluggishness, but it's not in any way bad, it's more likewise what translates into gaming performance from an iPhone 4 to iPhone 4S, not that big of a deal, slight slughness, but hands-on experience would be best

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:confused:

I can't understand what happed today. How can Apple release the new iPad when the web isn't ready for 2048 x 1536 yet?

;)

Btw, epic thread, Mengchen81!

My thoughts somewhat, makes other devices obselete in comparison, but Apple has to do what has to be done. Move technology forward, this however is a really big step forward.

The iPhone 4S at 960-by-640 was a big technological step in terms of mobile displays, and at this point in time, there is no way I'm looking at any other display that displays lower resolution (unless its the GSII but that's another story lol).

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I myself actually though, Apple would play a little catch up game with competitors, but they're really pushing it this time, wow. Competitors, even the Asus Transformer Prime with the 1200p display, weren't able to touch the iPad 2 in terms of fluidness, user interface, and usability. The new iPad, it's pretty amazing, no doubt.

One thing I have to say though, the keynote lacked that sort of "excitement" in it. Tim Cook is a great presenter but I mean, when Steve Jobs presented the iPhone 4, that was a great presentation, by no means, I actually loved it. This one was kinda ehh. But anyways that's just my two cents, who cares about the presentation in the end, it's all about the product!
 
Honestly I felt like an iPad with a Retina Display couldn't possibly not happen for this revision..
 
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