“Apple’s new generation iPad will enter mass production soon with the launch set for March 2012,”Aaron Lee and Joseph Tsai report for DigiTimes, citing “sources from the upstream supply chain.”
“The sources revealed that internally Apple does not view the new iPad product as iPad 3, but rather an upgraded iPad 2,” Lee and Tsai report. “The real iPad 3 will not be launched until the third quarter of 2012 at the earliest.”
Lee and Tsai report, “The iPad 2 upgrade will be thinner than iPad 2, and will offer longer battery life.”
Full article here.
Looks like my 1st gen iPad will have to carry me along for another year.
+1 X2 iPads
I am right with you! I do miss not having the camera, but with the IOS5 I love my 1st Generation Ipad!
Nope. The iPad 2 is already technically an iPad 1S. iPad 3 will be a new design, as with the iPhone cycle.
No, the iPad 2, since it was a major redesign with a new case, processor, etc – is correctly named “2”. If it were a speed bump in the same case then you might be able to call it a 1S. OK?
Also adds cameras. And since the original iPad was just called “iPad,” it would have been dumb to call it “iPad 1S,” no matter how it was updated. 🙂
Apple should stop naming products with names ending in “S”, period. So many comments make it ambiguous whether they’re talking about iPhone 4s (plural) or iPhone 4S (the latest iPhone model). No, people don’t always capitalize the “S” even when they mean the latest model.
I’d take it one step farther… Get rid of the stupid numbers altogether! I not typing on a MacBook Air 2 and the iMac on my desk is not an iMac 4! And the recent story about Apple contemplating ending the MacPro was not defined as the MacPro 6 or whatever… I thought Apple was about simplicity! The only one who needs to know what version of hardware you have is you so you know if OS software updates will work and to notify Support for any problems you may have. Your next door neighbor that you’re showing off your latest Apple product, just the name will suffice, when you say “Look at my brand new iPhone!”
Apple should follow their own practice for iOffice (and Microsft’s former naming practice for Windows):
IPad ’11, iPhone ’12, etc.
Removes all ambiguity.
That practice is already being used for the official names of Mac models. My iMac is “iMac (Late 2006).” The newest MacBook Air is “MacBook Air (Mid 2011).” And so on…
And iPod touch does not get a “special” name for every release.
But I can understand why iPhone and iPad get this special treatment. They are Apple’s flagship products. Apple wants to give them as must media attention as possible, and that includes giving the new models a distinct name that is useful for marketing purposes.
I would rather them keep the thickness the same and increase battery life even more.
+1
Why would any one want it thinner, anyhow? Eventually it will be fragile. Anyone think the iPad2 is too thick? I, too, would rather have more battery.
And storage space. 250 gig something like that would be sweet.
All I want Apple is a Retina Display for iPad. My iPad 1 is a great product, I didn’t bother to upgrade to 2 because 1 is still so great. But what would make it mind blowing is the iPhone 4/4S-quality visuals on the iPad. Print-what? Paper-who?
Here’s what happens with analyst. They make rumours, so companies will follow what they want. But they just never learned. It never worked with Apple.
iPad 2 will satisfy most people for years. What we
fanatics want is an iPad Pro (256GB memory.an
8GB camera,higher res screen,more powerful CPU,
etc.) One can dream.
I agree that whether it’s called a 2S or a 3, it has to be substantially better than the 2 to entice my to upgrade my iPad 1. I’m now noticing some occasional delays typing with iOS 5 on my iPad 1, and it is a bit annoying that the OS clears the cache every time I change screens, which more RAM would help, but it will take more than a bigger battery to entice me to upgrade. The assumed Retina Display and more RAM would do it. But, certainly not a thinner case. I love the look and feel of my iPad. It looks great, feels substantial, and lasts 8 hours with no issues. My only complaint is that it’s a bit heavy for one hand use. That’s it. It’s very responsive and state of the art useful. Oh, perhaps if they added Siri with more RAM, that might also entice me.
Fake rumor! Like Apple is going to release two iPads within a few months of each other (July is start of Q3). Go away DigiTimes, you’re a waste of space!
Exactly.
Didn’t we hear exactly the same thing last year?
easy predictions with little chance of error :
“the new iPad will beat the pants off its rivals and take most of the profits”.
repeat for the next xxx number of years…
I don’t think it will be called “iPad 3” until the next processor AFTER the A5 is ready. It’s possible that Apple will just keep the current iPad 2 going until WWDC next year and THEN use that stage to release iPad 3, with A6.
Pass down to the kids …… We will buy two of every generation for at least the next 2-3 generations …..
With only 2 versions released, about the only pattern we can see so far is that the iPad debuts the processing technology for the iPhone that comes out later that year.
There’s no evidence that Apple will change this cycle, nor the usual release timing. I’m kind of surprised MDN continues to post these rumours there’s more than enough “real” Apple news to talk about. Mind you it’s been years since Macintosh news dominated this place…
I don’t buy that Apple would release an iPad at the end of Q1 and another at the beginning of Q3. Makes no sense. When you roll out new versions, you want lots of pent up demand, not only from people waiting to buy their first, but from buyers of the previous versions. I have no feeling about 2S or not. But they won’t revise it twice six months apart.
If Siri is involved, I’m there. I don’t have an iPhone (tmobile), and want Siri. Extra memory would be great, but Siri is a must.