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Why the iPad 2 won't be a huge update like everyone is saying.

JoEw

JoEw

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 29, 2009
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Here is why the iPad 2 won't be a huge update.
The iPad had and still will have a remarkable market share of the tablet market this year. Apple is gonna do what they did with the iPhone and simply let it make as much money as it can before the "competition" catches up to them in market share. I think the next iPad will have minor new features. Cameras front and back, minidisplay port and some other small little features but nothing that is gonna make the iPad's profit margins small for Apple.

As Apple did with the iPhone there gonna make a ton of cash until the competition heats up in 2012 with android.

There won't be any change in display resoultion with the next iPad. There will be a proccesor and gpu bump.

Anyone else agree?
 
MacDawg said:
Ummm... no, not really
Click to expand...

look back to the iPhone 3G to 3Gs that wasn't a huge update no design change. Just procceser bumps and better cameras. There was no push from competition at the time from android. Apple had no reason to make the iPhone any better they made a ton of money then when Android market share started riseing. They released the iPhone 4 which was the biggest update to the iPhone since it's release in 2007.
 
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Comparing the difference of the iPhone 3G and the 3GS is totally useless in today's times now.
Back then, tablets barely existed, and only because of the iPad nearly a year ago did the battle really start, so yes, this will definitely be a significant update in order to satisfy existing and new/curious iPad customers.
  • There will be cameras
  • There will be updated speed and memory, which should also work well with iOS 5 in the obvious coming months
It needs to be in order to give the user the better choice than what honeycomb will be when thats released in June.
In other words, i don't agree, but its your opinion. This is mine. :)
 
SuperDA said:
Comparing the difference of the iPhone 3G and the 3GS is totally useless in today's times now.
Back then, tablets barely existed, and only because of the iPad nearly a year ago did the battle really start, so yes, this will definitely be a significant update in order to satisfy existing and new/curious iPad customers.
  • There will be cameras
  • There will be updated speed and memory, which should also work well with iOS 5 in the obvious coming months
It needs to be in order to give the user the better choice than what honeycomb will be when thats released in June.
In other words, i don't agree, but its your opinion. This is mine. :)
Click to expand...

I think there will be cameras but low quality cameras.
I think there will be speed and memory updates.
But there won't be a "retina" display for sure. It will be slighty thinner and smaller and lighter. Point is I don't think this update is gonna be like an iPhone 4 update.
 
I don't the iPad 2 will be a huge change from the iPad 1. Apple's track record has been small incremental changes.
 
Some would say adding a camera (or 2) is a huge update
It is all in how you define the terms and that is subjective

Will it be a total redesign?
No, I doubt it

Will it be a nice upgrade?
Yes, I think so
 
JoEw said:
look back to the iPhone 3G to 3Gs that wasn't a huge update no design change. Just procceser bumps and better cameras.
Click to expand...

I disagree. The iPhone upgrade from 3G to 3GS was far more substantial than the upgrade from 2G to 3G:

2G->3G: Changed back to plastic, added 3G radio, added GPS, and... well that's it.

3G->3Gs: Faster processor, double the RAM, updated graphics, double the HSDPA data capability, higher res camera, magnetometer, and voice control.

The 3GS offered much more than the 3G did.
 
JoEw said:
Here is why the iPad 2 won't be a huge update.
Click to expand...

From the beginning I have said that the resolution increase is not coming for iPad 2. There are a multitude of sound logical reason that it won't and mainly nerd wishful thinking that fuels speculation that it will.

Why it won't.

1: Product planning. Apple plans long term. They didn't spend years designing an iPad around a custom 1024x768 screen, only to change it after one year. Even planning it for only 2 years is short.

That alone seals it IMO.

2: Too large a leap in multiple areas. The crazy high res screen quadruple the pixels, higher than 99% of desktop monitors. The quadruple the GPU power to drive it. You can quadruble pixels when they are staying a trivial amount like on the iP4, but here we are pushing well past typical desktops, to resolutions that would challenge my desktop GPU. This too large a leap to expect on the silicon side. They need to stay within power/heat envelopes.

3: Margins. Crazy quad pixel screen, crazy quad power mobile GPU, quad video ram will all drive up costs at a time when they are already certain to be adding a couple of cameras. Margins go to heck.

4: They don't need to do anything other than a minor tweak at this time. They own the market, they own the mind-share, that won't change because some Android tablet has a few more pixels. In 2011 people will be thinking of in terms iPads and iPad knockoffs. Most of the knockoffs (HP tablet, RIM Tablet, most Android tablets) all have the same or less resolution only a few better by a small amount.

The counter arguments for it all seem to stem from nerd wishes summed up as: "I want it, so it will happen", or "Apple needs it to compete, (because I want it)"

I actually remain dubious that we will even see the is monstrous resolution in iPad 3, but I am quite certain we won't see it in iPad 2.
 
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Huge update is very subjective term. Huge update for whom? Tablet market is growing fast because people didn't buy them until iPad came out. Apple isn't the company that really tries to compete in specs. Retina display is not only expensive but u will have to have fast CPU and gpu with decent battery. I don't see retina display on iPad coming this year. Ther are still a lot users who still don't own any tablets.
 
JoEw said:
Here is why the iPad 2 won't be a huge update.
The iPad had and still will have a remarkable market share of the tablet market this year. Apple is gonna do what they did with the iPhone and simply let it make as much money as it can before the "competition" catches up to them in market share. I think the next iPad will have minor new features. Cameras front and back, minidisplay port and some other small little features but nothing that is gonna make the iPad's profit margins small for Apple.

As Apple did with the iPhone there gonna make a ton of cash until the competition heats up in 2012 with android.

There won't be any change in display resoultion with the next iPad. There will be a proccesor and gpu bump.

Anyone else agree?
Click to expand...

Your predictions and opinions would be worth noting if you were someone of relevance in the industry.

Can you give us your qualifications?
 
ReallyBigFeet said:
Your predictions and opinions would be worth noting if you were someone of relevance in the industry.

Can you give us your qualifications?
Click to expand...

Not that I necessarily disagree with you but I just want to note that we've seen too many analysts with impressive credentials fail time and time again to predict anything Apple-related correctly. I don't really put any weight to the opinions from the people "in the industry" than what I read on the internet. i.e. I'd rather trust what John Gruber says than a professional analyst working for a multi billion firm does. Sad but true.
 
The only product we can use as an example is the iPhone for the iPad.

The iPhone has had the fastest available SoC in every generation of its release so far. It still leads or is tied in camera quality, built in NAND, battery life, SoC performance (until Tegra 2 devices ship).

The reason these devices have cutting edge hardware is because of how rapidly the market is growing and how volatile it is. There is a lot of market share up for grabs, and you grab it by having the best product out there, hands down.

The iPad 2 may not have a screen upgrade, but it will most definitely have a very powerful SoC and some cameras with facetime capability at the least.
 
chrmjenkins said:
The only product we can use as an example is the iPhone for the iPad.

The iPhone has had the fastest available SoC in every generation of its release so far. It still leads or is tied in camera quality, built in NAND, battery life, SoC performance (until Tegra 2 devices ship).

The reason these devices have cutting edge hardware is because of how rapidly the market is growing and how volatile it is. There is a lot of market share up for grabs, and you grab it by having the best product out there, hands down.

The iPad 2 may not have a screen upgrade, but it will most definitely have a very powerful SoC and some cameras with facetime capability at the least.
Click to expand...

Just a little correction. 10" screen Tegra 2 Tablets were shipping to consumers before Christmas for around half the price of the current iPad.
 
Piggie said:
Just a little correction. 10" screen Tegra 2 Tablets were shipping to consumers before Christmas for around half the price of the current iPad.
Click to expand...

I was referring to phones, although your point still technically stands, as the Optimus 2x has been shipping in Korea. I was referring to the domestic climate for the iPhone as a comparison, though, which is why I neglected to mention it.
 
chrmjenkins said:
I was referring to phones, although your point still technically stands, as the Optimus 2x has been shipping in Korea. I was referring to the domestic climate for the iPhone as a comparison, though, which is why I neglected to mention it.
Click to expand...

Ok, fair enough :)
I was referring to the bargain Advent Vega which has got a lot of support in the UK due to it's nice specs and very low price of £249

http://www.thinq.co.uk/2010/11/19/advent-vega-android-tablet-hits-stores/

Lots of videos out about it now, including someone playing Angry birds on their 50" Plasma :)

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=advent+vega&aq=f

For £249 you can't really grumble :)

Angry Birds from the Vega to a 32" screen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QRLNGGQSaY&feature=related
 
Piggie said:
Ok, fair enough :)
I was referring to the bargain Advent Vega which has got a lot of support in the UK due to it's nice specs and very low price of £249

http://www.thinq.co.uk/2010/11/19/advent-vega-android-tablet-hits-stores/

Lots of videos out about it now, including someone playing Angry birds on their 50" Plasma :)

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=advent+vega&aq=f

For £249 you can't really grumble :)
Click to expand...

It's good that they are out there, but you can't fault Apple for falling behind inside of their product release cycle. If they don't catch up in April, that's license to complain.
 
Piggie said:
For £249 you can't really grumble :)
Click to expand...

Yes you can. My friend had bought that tablet, also known as the UX100 in some places, and he quickly sold it off. It was a pretty speedy machine but the response would get laggy very suddenly often enough that it was pissing him off, and more than anything else, the screen was just terrible. The laggy stuff I suppose can be solved by custom ROMs. However personally I could tolerate a machine that takes a couple seconds more to load websites but not a bad LCD on a tablet. But that's what chasing specs will get you.
 
JoEw said:
look back to the iPhone 3G to 3Gs that wasn't a huge update no design change. Just procceser bumps and better cameras. There was no push from competition at the time from android. Apple had no reason to make the iPhone any better they made a ton of money then when Android market share started riseing. They released the iPhone 4 which was the biggest update to the iPhone since it's release in 2007.
Click to expand...

There was NO REDESIGN OF THE EXTERIOR!!!! The 3gs boasted twice the ram, twice the speed, bigger mp camera, and twice the storage.
 
fertilized-egg said:
Yes you can. My friend had bought that tablet, also known as the UX100 in some places, and he quickly sold it off. It was a pretty speedy machine but the response would get laggy very suddenly often enough that it was pissing him off, and more than anything else, the screen was just terrible. The laggy stuff I suppose can be solved by custom ROMs. However personally I could tolerate a machine that takes a couple seconds more to load websites but not a bad LCD on a tablet. But that's what chasing specs will get you.
Click to expand...

Oh yes, I am aware that to make the most of this bargain tablet you need to install the custom Roms.
What is good however about this, is due to it's quite nice spec and very low price for what you get, it had attracted a following from the programmer community. And that's always a great thing to have, as once a machine get's these peoples interest they start to explore what you really get out of a piece of equipment. :)

Of course, not everyone is into this type of thing I can fully understand that.
 
Well first gen. iPad has alot to improve, important ones being RAM and facetime. So, second one will be a good update.
 
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