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I agree for the most part. It will probably come out as expected though, April-ish. But another major release in Sept, just 5 months away? I call bulls**t on that.

Exactly the iPad deserves it's own refresh period. Why lump it in with the iPods? Or even the iPhone? Tablets are their own category. April puts them in the great period of being after CES and MWC but before the actual release of most of those devices.
 
Tweet from Steve on iPad3

My thoughts exactly. This makes NO sense. I was getting all excited about the iPad 2- now i'm wondering if I should wait. OH THE DRAMA! lol!

Steve Jobs (@ceoSteveJobs)
10-02-11 02:46
Test from my iPad 3.
 
This sounds like a load of (insert favorite natural fertilizer here).

This sounds like the kind of stuff the competition would leak to slow consumers from buying the next-gen iPad. Make buyers wonder if they will have an obsolete/dated product to soften Apple sales of the iPad during market entry of HP and other offerings. A 3 or 4 month production run on the iPad 2 wouldn't even justify the factory re-tooling.

And such a move would be bad business for Apple. They don't win buy causing the consumer to no longer trust in a typical and predictable update schedule.
 
I would think a November pre christmas refresh would be the better move. As not to step on any ipod sales. But I also think the Ipad could be on a 6 month refresh and not a year. I guess there just isn't a big enough upgrade in electronic parts in 6 months.
 
There are still sooooo many apps that are iPhone only. Do you know how small an iPhone app on a iPad retina display would be? Try using the Facebook app on that! ;)

that's what the "2x" button is for (though I guess they'd need a 4x button, except for iphone 4 apps).
 
Come on. Apple has the resources to make a retina screen on the iPad right now. If it has to take until September for prouduction, than so be it. Releasing iPad 2 and then iPad 3 so close just doesn't make any sense. iPad 2 should have retina.

It pottentially makes financial sense. They'll eek it out because they can.
 
7-inch iPad?

Might the late Fall 2011 release be a 7-inch iPad? Its not like whatever SJ says is set in stone.....
 
Come on. Apple has the resources to make a retina screen on the iPad right now. If it has to take until September for prouduction, than so be it. Releasing iPad 2 and then iPad 3 so close just doesn't make any sense. iPad 2 should have retina.

It's possible that the names ("iPad 2" / "iPad 3") are nonsense.

Perhaps Apple is simply planning a minor, quiet update soon, with the 'next gen' iPad coming later this year. In which case, calling the next update/speedbump/featurebump the iPad 2 is just confusing things.
 
Tell us how you really feel :)

Seriously. There's an article out there (think it's PCMAG) about how at a certain point before launch, Apple rumors jump the shark.

At this point we've jumped a shark, a fishing troller and John Gruber's retarded cousin.
 
More Hype and BS!
Again Macrumors falls right into the crap no nothing people say!

Apple is not stupid. We know that, and their in no hurry.

Why would they break their traditional release cycle, demand, what a silly notion.

All these rumor monger morons out there have absolutely no concept of the retail merchandising strategy.

Just not going to happen.
 
More Hype and BS!
Again Macrumors falls right into the crap no nothing people say!

Apple is not stupid. We know that, and their in no hurry.

Why would they break their traditional release cycle, demand, what a silly notion.

All these rumor monger morons out there have absolutely no concept of the retail merchandising strategy.

Just not going to happen.

THANK YOU. John Gruber is no magic oracle.
 
If the iPad3 is not getting a hardware upgrade, it's just software, and then I don't care if I have iPad2 or iPad3.

That said. If it is hardware update, I have waited for the 2nd gen, and if the 3rd gen is just 6 to 9 months AFTER the second gen, why not wait another half year? This allows me to get the latest model, save up more money, and get a bigger/wifi model I know I can afford.

Why would they let us know there's a third model coming so quickly... it just means I won't buy the 2nd gen, as many others.
 
Obviously, this is a dangerous game to play: iPad 2 buyers may be angry if iPad 3 comes out a mere handful of months later... and even if it's not true, such rumors might suppress sales of iPad 2s while people wait based on September iPad 3 rumors.
 
By releasing the iPad around the January-April time frame gives apple the advantage to make a slight change in hardware before the keynote just to make the next-gen iPad better then the tablets we see at CES.

Exactly the March-April launch window is perfect for getting the jump on the vaporware at CES that won't be out til summer.
 
:rolleyes:

I stopped being impressed by John Gruber's information when he tweeted his confusion about why the you can't Airplay videos taken on the iPhone to the Apple TV.

He doesn't work for Apple, and he doesn't have any real insider information, AND he admitted that this iPad3 in Fall idea was pure speculation. I don't know why anyone thinks he knows what he's talking about.


(The reason for the Airplay limitation is the videos taken on the iphone are not immediately compressed, and the uncompressed bitrate is too high to stream to the ATV. you can download a free app called quickplay to compress the video and then stream it to the ATV, or you can download your video into itunes and then assign it back to your iPhone in the iPod section, which compresses the video and enables it to be Airplayed. This seemed obvious to me, but Gruber was flummoxed. I've heard rumors that 4.3 will cause the iphone to compress the videos automatically so they can be Airplayed.)
 
It'll either be:
- iOS 5
- A big jump from iPad 2 to iPad 3, as the iPad 2 is like 3G - 3GS; and, as it isn't great, (rumoured 1MP camera), it won't sell for as long (not quantity).
 
One good reason...

...to do this has less to do with needing to make an iPad 2.5 and more to do with shifting the purchase into the Christmas holiday season.

The only justification would seem to be the introduction of an improved image, and jumping up to 1280 x 960 is not that big a bump while 2048 x 1536 is overkill.

Then again, who knows what lurvil eeks within the heart of Apple?*

* Extra points if you can parse that.
 
Yes!!! Thank you competition.

It seems like with stiff competition in the tablet market space, Apple has to rethink their release schedule, which is VERY understandable. I knew the first gen. iPad was bogus and they already had the 2nd gen already ready to go with a front & rear facing cameras and some minor hardware boost (i.e. iPhone 4 specs) but not bringing it to market first really slowed FaceTime adoption and allowing the competitors to develop better design, OS and hardware integration. This is only good for us Apple consumers because Apple does NOT want to give up any market share that they already consumed which they will speed up specs & innovation on the next iteration of their tablet.
No matter what Apple release we’ll have options. Xoom/Honeycomb is looking very attractive and if they can drop the price below the iPad it would be a ‘no brainer’ for majority of the consumers/businesses.

Why I wouldn’t buy an iPad? And honestly, I don’t think this is too much to ask for.
  • No SD card slot – Transferring photos & being able to access the SD card to upload/print photos is key. Okay, if not a SD slot then allow us to use the dongle to upload to photo to printing sites. Yes, all of them – let me choose.
  • No Flash Support - Yes, not even a jailbreak app would fix this? Make it work and make it work just like my laptop. Right now, it’s NOT the entire web without.
  • No Microsoft Office Apps - Yes, I want Word, Excel & Powerpoint. I don’t think I have to explain why. If you don’t know why – you’re definitely not in the corporate world.
  • Too heavy – They’ll fix this in the next version so not a deal breaker. (Assumed)
  • Improved Specs – They’ll fix this in the next version so not a deal breaker. (Assumed)
 
So Many "Negatives" I'm Confused...

It's a new Apple product and you'll get it sooner rather than having to wait... And people dislike this?!? I don't get it...

I guess more iPad 3 for me...

HA!!! J/K I won't buy one until it can replace my laptop! (e.g. Either I can get flash from a jailbreak (not Frash, it sucks) or Flash goes away from the internet, and it gets at minimum 1200 vertical pixels so I can see the internet (side-scrolling is so not cool.))

Otherwise it's a niche item that replaces neither my iPhone or Hackintoshed NetBook that's priced just out of reach...

:)
 
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