iPad 3 is expected to have a faster processor, bigger and better screen, compatibility with multiple networks and also a heftier bulk. Reports hint that all this would stop being a mystery when Apple comes out with the announcement on 7th March this year. This date has been made popular by Apple blog iMore, which enticingly cites “sources who have been reliable in the past.”
The blog also adds with confirmation that the next generation iPad will have a quad-core processor, though it states uncertainty about iPad 3 having LTE compatibility, as predicted by Boy Genius Report. Along with the prediction of BGR, the Wall Street Journal also states that iPad 3 will have LTE capability. Wall Street Journal reported that “people familiar with the matter” said Apple was preparing an LTE version for the Verizon and AT&T networks in the US. The Wall Street Journal also claims that Apple is testing a version of the iPad that has a smaller screen than the current model.
To make matters more confusing, iMore states that instead of iPad 3, LTE would come in the next iPhone. Then last week AllThingsD had reported that the next iPad would look much like the iPad 2 “but running a much faster chip, sporting an improved graphics processing unit and featuring a 2048×1536 Retina Display—or something close to it.
Then Tech Ezra Gottheil of Technology Business Research (TBR) was reported to have said that he expects Apple to offer “a 7-inch version of the iPad 3, in addition to a 9.7-inch version.”
Last week The Next Web stated regarding the release schedule that Apple had gone into ‘crunch mode’, a hint that final preparations just before the launch are well into process.
Despite the heated speculations, the exact date of iPad 3 launch is still a mystery as Apple never follows a strict schedule of gadgets releases and likes to keep the anticipation high by not leaking a single comment on the gadget before it is officially released.
The only thing strict about schedules in Apple is that a product goes on sale within a fortnight of it being announced. Last year Apple announced iPad 2 on March 2nd and the tablet hit the market a week later.
So far, without a word from Apple, it is all speculation. So much so that even the name of the next generation Apple tablet is being questioned. While the general term for it is iPad 3, but some sources claim it would be officially named iPad HD. Now, the iPhone that was to come after iPhone 4 was expected to be iPhone 5, but it turned out to be an improved version of iPhone 4 instead of a next generation gadget and was named iPhone 4S. Something similar might happen with the next iPad if it is to be named HD instead of 5.
