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Thinner, Lighter 5th Generation iPad to Arrive in March 2013?
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I was surprised though that they updated the internals and called it 4th gen iPad. I'd be curious to know how many 3rd gen owners upgraded (I didn't).
It seems clear though that people love the form factor of the mini, love how thin and light it is. In fact the rumors out there have the mini selling very well, better than its big brother. Of course price is probably a factor too, but if people were motivate by price, there are cheaper tablets than the mini. So I can see Apple wanting to update the iPad with this form factor as soon as is possible. But I'd be curious to know what else there would be; a new form factor alone doesn't seem enough of a reason to come out with a 5th gen so soon after the 4th.
16x9 actually makes a lot more sense on an iPad than it does on the iPhone 5 - you may actually watch a lot of video on an iPad...
For most uses 4:3 or old iPhone 3:2 is far better, only films benefit from a 16x9 format - everything else is better with more width than an elongated layout.
What's 16:9 good for on a tablet other than watching movies? I want the bigger screen real estate.
16:9 is the crappiest res there is.
Other than watching youtube and movies, such a resolution would suck for everything else, from reading pdfs to surfing the web.
I fail to see how is this milking more money. Most people who bought an iPad a few months ago, won't be buying the new one. Apple are reducing their product cycles to stay competitive. Meaning, at any point in time, if you decide to buy a tablet, it is highly probable you will go for an iPad compared to the competition. Also avg. consumers have proven that they don't care much about having the latest from Apple. They care about a cheap Apple product. I know tons of my friends who have been buying the iPhone 4S, now.
These responses are hilarious. You presumably bought your iPad to serve a specific function. Just because the product is being refreshed earlier than expected, your iPad won't cease being able to perform this function. Tim Cook isn't going to come to your house and smash your iPad after announcing a new one. And obsolescence is not merely not having the latest model.
The iPad / tablet IS the new general computing market, so I don't see it as unreasonable for Apple to update them every 6 to 9 months. As many have mentioned, you don't need to buy the latest product out of Apples gates to make yourself feel better as a human being! I have a 2011 MBA and 3rd gen iPad and don't cry myself to sleep thinking how 'out of touch' I am.
I think Apple are trying to move to a strategy of strong continued product sales over a period rather than immense sales over the first few months and a lull afterward. You might lose some of the mouth frothing fervour that is associated with annual product launches, but then again people will stop caring so much about being absolutely up to the minute and won't worry so much about a mid life-cycle product. Previously Apple have been relying on staggered international sales to keep products in demand, but we're starting to see much faster roll outs similar to the mac lines. This is a good thing.
I think Apple are trying to move to a strategy of strong continued product sales over a period rather than immense sales over the first few months and a lull afterward. You might lose some of the mouth frothing fervour that is associated with annual product launches, but then again people will stop caring so much about being absolutely up to the minute and won't worry so much about a mid life-cycle product. Previously Apple have been relying on staggered international sales to keep products in demand, but we're starting to see much faster roll outs similar to the mac lines. This is a good thing.
I haven't read through the whole thread so maybe someone's said this already and I'm just agreeing with them but...
If Apple do this and it becomes a six-monthly thing then I can see some similarity, albeit on an accelerated timescale, to Intel's tick-tock strategy.
Intel release a new architectural design using a geometry that they've already used and then the next release is the same architectural design but now shrunk to a new (smaller) geometry. If making a purchasing decision for an Intel CPU one has the choice of whether to jump in as soon as a new architecture is released and get the immediate benefits of a performance increase or whether to wait one more release cycle to get power efficiency benefits as well as performance benefits.
Apple's new version of the above might be to release significant upgrades to the internal electronics within the same physical packaging in one release (i.e. what they just did with the latest iPad release) and then for the next release keep roughly the same internal electronics but re-package it into a sleeker physical form factor.
Intel's tick-tock release cycle is nice and predictable for the consumer and does a good job of controlling design risk for Intel and it would seem to me to be a good model for Apple to adapt to its own needs with the added benefit of giving Apple a new version to promote every six months rather than every year.
- Julian
If Apple do this and it becomes a six-monthly thing then I can see some similarity, albeit on an accelerated timescale, to Intel's tick-tock strategy.
Intel release a new architectural design using a geometry that they've already used and then the next release is the same architectural design but now shrunk to a new (smaller) geometry. If making a purchasing decision for an Intel CPU one has the choice of whether to jump in as soon as a new architecture is released and get the immediate benefits of a performance increase or whether to wait one more release cycle to get power efficiency benefits as well as performance benefits.
Apple's new version of the above might be to release significant upgrades to the internal electronics within the same physical packaging in one release (i.e. what they just did with the latest iPad release) and then for the next release keep roughly the same internal electronics but re-package it into a sleeker physical form factor.
Intel's tick-tock release cycle is nice and predictable for the consumer and does a good job of controlling design risk for Intel and it would seem to me to be a good model for Apple to adapt to its own needs with the added benefit of giving Apple a new version to promote every six months rather than every year.
- Julian
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Not going to happen.
It would seriously harm the second hand market - all Apple devices, if they double the frequency of their product refresh cycles, would instantly lose significant (1/2?) value when going to resale.
It would seriously harm the second hand market - all Apple devices, if they double the frequency of their product refresh cycles, would instantly lose significant (1/2?) value when going to resale.
Nobody has to buy the latest model every time it is released
and it's not that weird for a couple of updates a year to computer models, so it shouldn't be for tablets. It just means when you plonk down your money you get more recent tech for it than you might have otherwise done. That is a good thing.
In my view, the important thing is not how frequent new models appear, but how long these models are supported for updates etc,. Speaking (well, typing) as an iPad 1 owner/user, I'm not too happy how short a time Apple released updates for it (I know, gen 1, early adopter blah blah
). I don't regret my purchase, but if I see the iPad 2 being excluded from the next iOS it will put me off buying another iPad because of the sense of artificially short planned obsolescence.
I've said this before, but I think it's worth repeating - no-one should expect all the latest features or as fast hardware from older models (that should be obvious really) but maintenance/security updates should be released for years and years. It's the new features along with a secure feeling of the device having a decent lifespan that should encourage users to buy newer models, not feeling forced into it because they don't feel confident in how safe the browser or their user data is anymore...
In my view, the important thing is not how frequent new models appear, but how long these models are supported for updates etc,. Speaking (well, typing) as an iPad 1 owner/user, I'm not too happy how short a time Apple released updates for it (I know, gen 1, early adopter blah blah
). I don't regret my purchase, but if I see the iPad 2 being excluded from the next iOS it will put me off buying another iPad because of the sense of artificially short planned obsolescence.I've said this before, but I think it's worth repeating - no-one should expect all the latest features or as fast hardware from older models (that should be obvious really) but maintenance/security updates should be released for years and years. It's the new features along with a secure feeling of the device having a decent lifespan that should encourage users to buy newer models, not feeling forced into it because they don't feel confident in how safe the browser or their user data is anymore...
Yes, 16:9 gives you more "screen real estate"
Take your existing iPad and "ADD" more screen to it to make it 16:9 (or 16:10)
FWIW, the 3rd gen was thicker and heavier than the 2nd gen, so who knows!
Not sure if I'm going 5th gen iPad or 2nd gen iPad Mini, but either way - can't wait for something lighter!
I'm thinking along the same lines.....of course this could also turn out to APPLE's advantage.
Can't see APPLE themselves releasing this kind of information, cause it could surely stall sales of iPad4.
Lol u think the iPad is physically "such a big thing"? Damn where were u when we all carried laptops around 4 years ago?
Well this is interesting. If true and Apple isn't even going to stick to a 6 month refresh cycle, then its clear they are feeling the heat and competition in sales from its competitors. I think they need to concentrate on the mini before the full fat one, I was playing on one the other day and the size isn't too bad but I just hated the screen, I could easily see it's nothing like my iPhone retina screens.
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They are still perfecting the cuttle fish fuel
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So no CentiPads yet?
They are still perfecting the cuttle fish fuel
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