iPad 3 launch date rumours reboot due to reported Tim Cook Korea visit
The iPad 3 could launch with a Samsung-made AMOLED screen, if rumours that Apple has been in talks on the matter with Samsung execs are true.
But wait! An iPad 3 to launch towards the end of this year? That’s a rumour we haven’t heard for a while, but it’s one that doesn’t seem to be going away – does that mean there’s some truth in it?
John Gruber kickstarted the ‘iPad 3 in late 2011 rumour’ in February, and I thought it was unlikely, in part on the basis of iPad 2 supply issues and slow international rollouts. Apple somewhat sorted the latter but not the former, and since February we’ve also had increasing rumours that the iPhone 5 might not show up until the autumn, or even until 2012.
Apple ditching the strict annual update routine makes sense—it keeps everyone on their toes and stops stagnating sales at the end of a cycle. However, I’m still not convinced we’ll see another iPad revision this year. It seems too soon, could alienate new Apple fans who’ve recently bought an iPad 2, and we’ve not seen an iPhone update since last year.
Of course, Apple’s hand might be forced, if a competitor rolls out a tablet with a Retina-style display, although most seem content of creating tablets thicker than the iPad that happen to run Flash and cost the same. Aside from that, I’d think it more likely we’ll see another iPhone later this year and the iPad 3 early in 2012.
Apple keeping to a more-or-less annual iPhone and iPad refresh also makes sense: it gives consumers a sense of continuity, which is sadly lacking in the Android world. Any given Android device will be made obsolete in, well, as soon as possible, so why buy *this particular one*? With the iOS devices (and the iPods before them), you could at least guess more correctly than not that Apple would stand behind it as the flagship product for at least a year, which, given how many are connected to a 2 or 3 year contract, probably boosts sales more than it hinders them at the end of the cycle.
And in the tablet world, well, it doesn’t seem like anyone’s forcing Apple’s hand *cough* professional-grade-recall *cough*. When/if Apple makes a retina-display iPad, they’ll have a reason for it, and a user experience that sells it; it’s just not really a feature in and of itself.
Let’s hope Apple relaxes their schedule. It’s quite impossible to keep up!
“However, I’m still not convinced we’ll see another iPad revision this year. It seems too soon, could alienate new Apple fans who’ve recently bought an iPad 2…”
And yet, Apple introduced the second-generation iPod Mini in the spring of 2005 only to replace it with the iPod Nano that fall.