14 DAY TRIAL // A questionable report from Asia claims that Apple plans to unveil an iPad 3 in March, and then a fourth-generation iPad seven months later, packing a slew of integrated applications designed to compete with Android- and Windows-based tablets.
The iPad 3 will have a QXGA (1,536x2,048 pixels) display and more battery mileage, but the product will be generally unchanged overall, component suppliers are reporting to Digitimes.
Apple’s goal in this first half of 2012 is not to impress with blazing fast performance and major design alterations, but rather to get the iPad 2 in the hands of competitors' fans following a price reduction.
When the iPad 3 is introduced, the Cupertino tech giant will reportedly slash the price of the current-generation of tablets to US $399. This will dampen the efforts of Sony, Motorola Mobility and Samsung Electronics to compete with the iPad, the sources indicated.
Needless to point out, you don’t need industry sources to lay out such a deductible scenario - these price cuts are generally the case with every new generation of iPad and iPhone, and competition has always been fierce in the tech industry.
But then comes the rather interesting iPad 4 tidbit. According to industry sources in Taiwan, the "iPad 4" - named so by its component suppliers - will arrive with “killer applications” sometime in October.
This is reportedly a scheduled attack on Android and Windows (‘Wintel’) tablets.
Interestingly, the sources seem to already know a few technical specifications pertaining to the iPad 4, such as the screen size - 9.7-inches, just like all iPads before it.
The device “is expected to come with much upgraded hardware specifications and integrated applications so as to compete with an array of Android-, Wintel- or WoA (Windows on ARM)-based tablet PCs to be released in the fourth quarter,” according to the sources cited by the Taiwanese trade publication.