Now that the iPhone 4S has a 64GB option, I assume that iPad 3 will have 128GB option. What is really odd is that the iPod touch has 2x32GB NAND flash memory and yet they didn't introduce a 128GB iPod touch to the line up.
You do understand that NANDs are not cheap at the moment and the 1288GB is still very expensive for a product that retails for $400-500?
Apple is not going to give up its healthy profits on that.
The
NANDs itself is the most expensive part in the iOS devices with the display as the next expensive part.
According to iSuppli, the 16GB MLC chip would cost Apple 40$ back in Feb. The prices don't go down that fast for small devices, so let's assuming 20$ anyway. 32GB would cost Apple 40$, 64GB would cost about 80$ and 128GB would cost about 160$ per device for Apple. It'd nearly cut Apple's profit margins by half.
I seriously doubt we'll see any 128GB devices for another year or two and if iPad 3 comes out before summer, it will not have 128GB parts unless the manufactures can successfully produce enough NANDs at lower price which requires them to upgrade all of their fabs to newer and smaller process which is not easy and not cheap either, they take time to build. I expect 128GB for iPad 4 in 2014 at most.
@$829 (or $699) SHOULD already include 128GB.
The way Apple acted this year with virtually no iPod updates and slim iPhone 4 updates they seem to want to sit on the throne and put little effort into their products as possible. It's fine, it is their choice but I'm definitely going to be looking elsewhere if they don't offer anything worth while soon.
It's still an impressive upgrade despite the fact that's it just a speed bump to the iPhone 4.
No companies on this planet can continuously produce new innovative technologies every 12-24 months. I don't see what else Apple can do in less than 24 months here.
They can't use OLED or whichever Samsung devices use because there aren't enough production fabs to output the supply that Apple needs. The production fabs are already maxed out because they have to specialize techniques to fit Apple's designs which drains a lot of money and time. Not only that, Apple is already using multiple suppliers for same parts because the current fabs are just not producing the parts fast enough.
Samsung can do it because the demand isn't that high for their devices but they did had to switch screens a few time because they ran out of supply.
We need to lower our expectations here and not expect a brand new device ever year. We should expect the same 'tick-tock' schedule that Intel is doing for their CPU. Expect a major upgrade every 2-3 years and a minor update every year.