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iPad Did Apple plan to oust the iPad 3 from the start?

J

jpix55

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 24, 2011
52
0
Southern California
From the naming of each generation of the iPads, I am thinking that Apple knew they were going to kill the 3rd generation iPad as soon as possible. The iPhones have followed a logical numbering system (3G - 3GS - 4 - 4S - 5), but the iPads have not (2 - "New" - "with Retina display"). With this type of naming, it seems as though the iPad 3 (as we call it) was the minor refresh in anticipation of the major upgrade of the iPad 4. The Apple store now sells three iPads (Mini, 2, and "with Retina display") and the iPad 3 is no where to be found. It is as if it was only a placeholder for the iPad 4.

Maybe I am reading too much into the names of Apple products, but if visiting this site has taught me anything, it's that clues about upcoming Apple products come in many shapes and sizes.
 
jpix55 said:
From the naming of each generation of the iPads, I am thinking that Apple knew they were going to kill the 3rd generation iPad as soon as possible. The iPhones have followed a logical numbering system (3G - 3GS - 4 - 4S - 5), but the iPads have not (2 - "New" - "with Retina display"). With this type of naming, it seems as though the iPad 3 (as we call it) was the minor refresh in anticipation of the major upgrade of the iPad 4. The Apple store now sells three iPads (Mini, 2, and "with Retina display") and the iPad 3 is no where to be found. It is as if it was only a placeholder for the iPad 4.

Maybe I am reading too much into the names of Apple products, but if visiting this site has taught me anything, it's that clues about upcoming Apple products come in many shapes and sizes.
Click to expand...
I think you have an excellent observation and I think what they did was, unlike when the iPad3 replaced the iPad2, the iPad4 is meant to be sold side-by-side with the iPad3 instead of a pure replacement product. Hence, they really had to do away with the numbering since the numbering screams "OLD VERSION" way too loud and clear for anyone considering the iPad3.
 
I think the 2 main factors were the A6 and LTE.

I don't think the A6 was ready for a spring iPad launch. So they modified the A5 to support some of the features they wanted and called it the A5X.

The LTE chip that is in the iPad 3rd gen doesn't support many carriers; especially outside the US. Notice the 4th gen has wide support. I believe this is another factor in why we are seeing the 4th gen released after such a short period.

So while it probably wasn't Apple's initial plan, when the components weren't ready it became their new plan to have the limited edition iPad 2S... I mean iPad 3rd gen... I mean new iPad that's now old but was new 6 months ago...
 
While it may be fun speculating on Apple's "grand plan" like it was the technical arm of the Illuminati, the reality is that they can't possibly have a long-term plan written in stone. As technological advances occur and demand of existing product strays from expected results, Apple needs to make adjustments accordingly.

People were expecting retina-display iPads a year before they were introduced and the conspiracy-minded believed that it was being withheld intentionally. However when the retina iPad was finally introduced it was thicker, heavier and hotter than the previous generation, so even waiting a year for battery/processor technology to catch up required some design compromises.

Apple doesn't necessarily take cues from the competition but it does take action to ensure that sales growth continues, which necessarily requires an answer to competing devices. So, no, I don't believe Apple created the iPad 3 as a temporary measure.
 
poloponies said:
While it may be fun speculating on Apple's "grand plan" like it was the technical arm of the Illuminati, the reality is that they can't possibly have a long-term plan written in stone. As technological advances occur and demand of existing product strays from expected results, Apple needs to make adjustments accordingly.
Click to expand...
I think Applesoft is smart enough to know what they are going to be doing 6 months from now. I have no doubt that they knew when they released the iPad3 that the iPad4 would be coming much sooner than the rest of us expected. Maybe that was a factor in their naming strategy or maybe it wasn't, but you really can't say that 6 months is so much of a long-term strategy that they didn't know they would be doing this.
 
Certainly makes the 3rd gen look like it was a half baked idea from the get go. Its like it was a beta version to the 4. Poor LTE support and rigged processor that ran no faster than its A5 counterpart .

Yes Apple had this all in the books I am sure of it, back when SJ died they claimed to have a several years ahead roadmap that was made by him so certainly they would have known.

Oh well, this will teach me to pay for top of the line model that didnt feature a processor update. No iPad updates for me unless it is featuring a new processor and I can wait for the A7 since my 3 does what I need it to do for now.
 
When I met with a friend of mine today, he seemed surprised for a second when I mentioned the iPad 4.

Even though he watched the keynote, it didn't register to him. The introduction of the iPad 4 was so brief it's as if Apple wasn't really proud of it.
 
Xanthos said:
When I met with a friend of mine today, he seemed surprised for a second when I mentioned the iPad 4.

Even though he watched the keynote, it didn't register to him. The introduction of the iPad 4 was so brief it's as if Apple wasn't really proud of it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it did seem like Apple presented the iPad 4 as just a refresh of the iPad 3 (an iPad 3.5, if you will), but the update to the internals was substantial. It's as if we were not supposed to care about the iPad 4.
 
I don't think Apple intended to oust the iPad 3rd gen, I think they intended to turn the iPad into a product like the Mac, where they can update it as new internals become available. Not call it the iPad 3, 3S, 4, etc.

The A6 SoC and additional LTE chips were now ready so they updated the iPad.
 
profets said:
I don't think Apple intended to oust the iPad 3rd gen, I think they intended to turn the iPad into a product like the Mac, where they can update it as new internals become available. Not call it the iPad 3, 3S, 4, etc.

The A6 SoC and additional LTE chips were now ready so they updated the iPad.
Click to expand...
True. When will A7/A7X proccessors be ready? =)
 
Xanthos said:
When I met with a friend of mine today, he seemed surprised for a second when I mentioned the iPad 4.

Even though he watched the keynote, it didn't register to him. The introduction of the iPad 4 was so brief it's as if Apple wasn't really proud of it.
Click to expand...


They did mention how fast it was and how it would leave their competitors in the dust. So far back you couldn't even see them in the rearview mirror. I remember that part.
 
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