Apple's Suppliers Preparing for Fall Launch of iPhone 5 and iPad 3?

[ahbo]

There have been many conflicting reports about whether a new iPad will be introduced this fall or early next year.

But what if they're both right?

It's pretty much agreed that the iPhone released in the fall will be dual-mode - GSM and CDMA. What if there's a coinciding refresh of the iPad at this time simply to unify the two 3G models as well?

The retina display upgrade would then occur in a major refresh in March 2011.

 

[NebulaClash]

I do wish people would stop posting that Steve Jobs pic as if that proved anything. iPad 3 will be out whenever it is ready, and 2011 has nothing to do with it.

 

[beebler]

This seems totally legit.

Think what you want. One of my best friends works in Apple R&D. There's no reason why I'd just say nonsense.

 

[beebler]

You must work for The National Enquirer with top notch sources like that! LOL

Well, obviously my source doesn't know everything. He even has to flip papers upside down when he's not at his desk so they're quite tight.

But he does know what Apple's working on (aside from iPhone which is in a different department) at least vaguely. He has to listen to designer's proposals and help create a budget for them. He's given me a fair share of info and although he's not 100% accurate on all the details, he's been somewhat on point. I don't know if you can but if you look back at all my posts, they'll have at least some mention of something before they're known. A lot of times it's just about designers testing things out, like they're playing with the key color and going back to something more silver from black.

You can doubt and make fun but just store this note for a bit:

The next release of MacBook Pros will be the redesign, early next year. It'll be thinner, full SSD, etc., but the point they'll be showing off is the screen.

Just because I'm not quoting some media outlet or foreign third party case designer doesn't mean that this isn't information. If I didn't have any info (which I won't in a bit because my friend won't be there much longer), I wouldn't be wasting my time at all posting nonsense.

 

[shompa]

All Ipad3 believers:

WHO IS GOING TO SUPPLY THE 28NM A6?

No one can today manufacture 28nm. How are Apple technically going to release a product if it can't be manufactured?

I love speculation, but try to have some technical know how.
Lie:
"Apple has built a secret factory that can produce 28nm chips"

 

[Black Belt]

iPad 3 is utter nonsense. They have BARELY started to meet demand for the iPad 2. It is still sold out most places.

 

[TG1]

If the iPad and iPhone launched simultaneously every September, we'd all be broke before Christmas!

 

[Blacklabel34]

Whats funny is all the people upset by this are the iPad2 owners. So what if they do or don't release a new iPad in a few months. I'm still happy with my original iPad. If your happy with what you have does it really matter?

If the iPad and iPhone launched simultaneously every September, we'd all be broke before Christmas!

^+1

I do wish people would stop posting that Steve Jobs pic as if that proved anything. iPad 3 will be out whenever it is ready, and 2011 has nothing to do with it.

^+1
Its called marketing people. Whatever it takes to sell the product. (Within reason)

 

[Neodym]

Solid points, but I counter you with the fact that Apple is still sitting on the iPhone 4 which is in a very similar situation as the iPad market. [...] They felt so confident in their position they even moved back the release of their next phone 3 months.

There is a good chance that the Fukushima incident _forced_ them moving back the release. The whole electronics industry struggled heavily after that happened, because they suddenly had to evaluate and qualify alternatives to already firmly set components for upcoming (and perhaps already announced) product releases.

And components in this relation does not necessarily equal a camera module, memory, screen or other "big" parts (though those could have been affected as well), but could come down to something as (seemingly) simple as capacitors and resistors.

It will be interesting to see if products released a couple of months after Fukushima will show a significantly higher failure rate in the future due to exactly that problem (re-evaluate and re-qualify many components and new suppliers under a huge time pressure). This would not be limited to Apple though, mind you!

You don't think a company with over $70 BILLION in cash [...] doesn't have the capability to fire simultaneously on multiple product lines? [...] As of September 2010, Apple had over 46,000 full time employees worldwide.

How many of those 46,000 full time employees are actually working in the R&D department?

Whats funny is all the people upset by this are the iPad2 owners. [...] I'm still happy with my original iPad.

Actually i intentionally went for an iPad 1 (refurb) as an affordable stop-gap measure to find out whether i could really make use of it, before i switch to the second-next generation with higher res display. The iPad defined a new market and such emerging markets often show short product cycles in the beginning, therefore i would not be surprised to see a complement or successor to the iPad 2 within this calendar year.

iPad 3 is utter nonsense. They have BARELY started to meet demand for the iPad 2. It is still sold out most places.

Existing suppliers can't deliver the volume needed, so Apple does have to add other suppliers anyway. Under the given circumstances it would be a wise business decision to have those "new" suppliers produce an updated version of the "old" model right from the beginning.

 

[macchiato2009]

[url=http://cdn.macrumors.com/im/macrumorsthreadlogodarkd.png]Image[/url]


Image

DigiTimes reports that upstream suppliers in Apple's manufacturing chain have been given orders to begin preparing for production of next-generation iPhone and iPad, with a debut expected in the September-October timeframe.While Apple has been widely rumored to be preparing to launch its next-generation iPhone within that timeframe, a new iPad has been a controversial topic. A number of sources have reported that Apple may introduce an updated iPad just months after the release of the iPad 2 as the company seeks to maintain its stranglehold on the tablet market in the face of rapidly-increasing competition, but those claims have been met with skepticism by others expecting Apple to roughly stick to its usual annual update cycle.

According to the today's report, the new iPad will likely be thinner and lighter than the current iPad 2 and will support a display resolution of approximately 250 dpi, which would be double that of the iPad and iPad 2.

Article Link: Apple's Suppliers Preparing for Fall Launch of iPhone 5 and iPad 3?

Come on...

the iPad 2 was launched 3 months ago...


sometimes i wonder if macrumors is just trying to generate visits with stupid news....

 

[charlituna]

Why would you miss the Christmas Buying season with a product that already outsells all of the "competition" combined. It seems pointless and not cost effective to release a new iPad now. Especially when the iPad 2 is an excellent device.

That's the beauty of Apple. They don't need the Holiday season to push their sales up. And folks will be quite happy to receive a gift card for their appropriate holiday and wait for the revision in the spring

 

[pyro008]

Why on earth would it make sense to synchronize these products??? There are always shortages when these are first introduced, and the common components between them will almost certainly make the overall shortages worse than individual ones. Aside from that, spending all that money at one time as opposed to spreading it out over the year?

To me consolidation of the updates of these lines seems like it will do far more harm than good, and coupled with the fact that the ipad2 just came out, I think an ipad 3 in Q3 is unlikely.

 

[LoganT]

Apple: 2011: The Year of the iPad 2. Oh yeah and also the iPad 3, later this year. But why would we tell you that now?

 

[Michael Scrip]

Why put an A6 into just one product now, then another product 6 months later, when you can put it into both products now, double your orders and get a much better discount?

Imagine if Apple put the A6 in the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad at the same time... that's a lot of chip orders.

I guess that's why Apple is looking towards TSMC for the future.

 

[Ijustfarted]

Oh god I really really hope an iPad 3 doesn't release this year. I don't want to sell my iPad 2 so soon and go through the trouble of finding an iPad 3 because we all know how difficult it would be to find one

 

[neutrino23]

There is no way Apple would replace the iPad 2 with iPad 3 this early. However, they might come out with a high end "pro" version with double the resolution in the display. This would solve lot of problems. It would leave current production untouched, it would capture a lot of attention, it would sell for more, maybe $1,000 or so, so it would sell in smaller numbers letting them experiment with this new technology without putting the whole product line at risk, it would knock the competition on their heels, selling in small numbers the apps developers would have more time to support it.

Being high end they might just sell one model. 64GB with a universal 3G/CDMA radio and WiFi.

Note that they currently sell both the iPhone 4 and 3S at different price points.

Doubling the resolution has time value. If they do this in 2013 they are following the competition. 2012 they join the competition. 2011 they are clear leaders.

There are a number of science, engineering and artistic applications that would hugely benefit from a high resolution display.

 

[LoganT]

I wish Apple would release an iPad 3 early, just to shut people up who say "Apple would never..."

 

[mattg3]

What they need is to release a 5g ipod touch.

 

[gadget123]

Just to add in contrast... I don't hear a lot of complaining about other manufactures like Samsung who will one-up themselves a few times a year as they crank out new models. Or other manufactures for that matter. Apple is one of the only companies that seems to take the slower more cautious road most of the time. So for them to do two new models of the iPad in one year would not be out of line with industry standards.

I hope that makes sense? LOL!

Samsung only release a few top end phones most are mid range. Galaxy S had a full year.

 

[gadget123]

I strongly believe Apple need an iPad update by end of years. If you guys look at Samsung, they have the thinnest tablet right now and the galaxy tab is looking really good. All it's missing is just some apps right now. Consider what will happen when Samsung throws in a 2048x1536 panel to that thing and Android apps start picking up (it's just a matter of time).

I know we keep saying spec dont matter but I guess no one really argue how sharp the display is on the ip4...we all want it. Well, I know I do. My point is, I will seriously consider picking one up if it even when I am so lock into iOS right now.

It might not call iPad 3 though. I think it makes sense to have a real iPad HD and cost 100-200 more.

The IPhone 3GS had a 3 mega pixel camera when SE were releasing 12 mega pixels.

Would you not rather let IPad 2 run it's cycle than haveva rushed IPad 2 with a new screen?

If the IPad 3 did come Ocobter I assume those who get it don't mind upgrading to IPad 4 in March 2012?

I think not.

 

[gadget123]

Come on...

the iPad 2 was launched 3 months ago...


sometimes i wonder if macrumors is just trying to generate visits with stupid news....

Exactly.

If Apple were going to release a high resolution IPad why not do it in March and make it the top model with 3G and 64GB? We were told in rumour sites it would be too expensive. The rumours upgrade here is not even retina. Surely Apple would rather release an IPad 3 with better specs than rush a IPad 2.1 out?

Who knows though if Apple go down the line of Nano IPhones and cheap IPads with smaller screen it's basically following Samsung. Doubt there would be long ones of queues as Apple phones and iPads has caused a big demand as they release one big product a year.

I think the delayed iPhone announcement has started this speculation now the Ipbone never got released in a cycle. I still think it will be one iPhone a year, one IPod maybe not even an update some years now as it's as good as it can get so maybe just one IPad and one IPhone.

 

[SactoGuy18]

I think the most likely change for the iPad 3 is going from 1024x768 to 1280x960 resolution for the display panel. 1280x960 is sufficient to result in a lot cleaner looking fonts for text, critical if the iPad is going to be viable e-book reader.

 

[neutrino23]

I think the most likely change for the iPad 3 is going from 1024x768 to 1280x960 resolution for the display panel. 1280x960 is sufficient to result in a lot cleaner looking fonts for text, critical if the iPad is going to be viable e-book reader.

Highly unlikely. If it were just a matter of font display they might. However, most apps rely on there being a certain number of pixels in the display. If you change the display resolution by an non-integral fraction that causes a lot of problems for developers. That is the reason that doubling the resolution is being discussed. It will be double resolution or no change.

 

[kgregc1]

Apple is looking for profits. If they looked at the number of units of a current product they have, and plug in the cost of a newly developed CPU, camera and screen and find they can produce the new and improved product at the same profit level, at the projected volume, they have several options.

They can keep the same model number in production and introduce the newer unit later when they can go back to the part manufacturers with proven increased quantity numbers to get better prices. They would just rely on the momentum they have now with the current model beating the competition for a while, and not upset buyers of the fairly recently released version.

Or, they could introduce a new version, with the same profit margins, but raise the bar to the competition, ensuring a year or so of dominance in the market place, but upsetting some of their customers who just bought the latest version.

Or, they could find out they could produce the new version at a higher profit level, enough to maybe even toss a rebate to the current version buyers to keep them happy with the product they just bought. They would then reap the extra benefits of higher margins and a product that totally blows the competition away.

You don't base product introduction just on past introduction date history, if it makes more sense, profit wise and market share wise, to do it earlier.

My opinion...

 

[fpsBeaTt]

Thank god we have you to tell all of us that more choice is crap. /s

*sigh* Don't be so obtuse, erzhik. More choice is good; the choices currently available that compete are crap.