Treat this with a pinch of salt until we hear the official word from Apple, but strong rumours from a “reliable Asian source” suggest that the iPad 3 will launch in March 2012 and will feature a re-designed dock connector.
Japanese tech blog Macotakara states:
"(The) new iPad seems to have (a) re-designed dock connector. (The dock's) 30-pins and electricity specification will not be changed, but (the) shape will be smaller than the current 'iPad dock connector,' which (was) released April 2003."
The source also claims that the screen of the iPad 3 will be the same size as the existing model, and that consumers will be given the choice of buying either a black or white version of the tablet device. Other rumours suggest that the iPad 3 will sport a 2,048x1,536 Retina Display, compared to the iPad 2's 1,024x768 resolution.
While Macotakara believes that Chinese factories will rush to finish production on the iPad 3 by the end of January - due to Chinese New Year celebrations that run from January 22-28 - other sources believe that Apple won’t release the new iPad until the summer.
CNET, citing chip consulting firm Linley Group says that the iPad 3 won’t appear too early in the year because it features the quad-core A6 processor, which is still in production at the company’s Austin, Texas, plant. However, Apple did launch the iPad in April 2010 and the iPad 2 in March 2011, so March 2012 for the iPad 3 doesn’t seem like an unreasonable plan.
iPad 3 Features
Let’s now take a look at all the features in depth:
A6 Processor
The current Apple iPad 2 has a 900MHz dual-core ARM Cortext-A9 processor, Apple A5 chipset and PowerVr SGX543MP2 GPU. This certainly made the Apple iPad 2 a powerful tablet and a main competitor in the world of tablets. Now Apple is aiming to make the competition tougher by sporting an A6 Quad-core Processor in the iPad 3. This would make the iPad 3 as powerful as any high-end desktop.
According to Linley Group senior analyst Kevin Krewell, “We expect the A6 will be a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 design, which would be competitive with next year’s best mobile processors. In 2012, Nvidia will offer a quad-core Cortex-A9 processor, and Qualcomm will have the aforementioned MSM8960, a dual-core A15-class processor operating at 1.7GHz. Fabricating Apple’s A6 in 28nm (instead of the 40nm process Nvidia is using for its quad-core part) will reduce both die cost and power, yielding a much better product.”
iOS 5
The iPad 3 will come with the latest iOS 5, which will host the multi-touch gesture technology. However, analyst and tech enthusiasts predict that Apple would introduce OS X Lion for the tablet, since it will be powered by a quad-core processor.
This will also include multitasking features, such as notifications, task-finishing, app-switching, location and background sound.
3D Feature and New Display
Apple enthusiast expected the Retina Display feature on Apple iPad 2; however, Apple has been working majorly for an improvised version of it to include it in the iPad 3. The iPhone 4 currently supports the Retina Display with a screen resolution of 960 x 640. Apple explains Retina Display as: “Developing pixels a mere 78 micrometers wide, Apple engineers were able to pack four times the number of pixels into the same 3.5-inch (diagonal) screen found on earlier iPhone models. The resulting pixel density of iPhone 4 – 326 pixels per inch – makes text and graphics look smooth and continuous at any size.”
With the Retina Display feature, the screen resolution of the iPad3 will be 2048 x 1536 pixels. However, it is said that the third version of the tablet is delayed due to Retina Display issues, and Apple is expected to ship the tablet in early 2012.
There are speculations that the tablet will display the 3D view. Although it’s too early to expect features like 3D display, devices like the LG Optimus can record videos in 3D, and output the same through HDMI.
Cloud Computing
Apple announced its Cloud services during the WWDC 2011, and will definitely include the iCloud technology both in the iPhone 5 and iPad 3. With iCloud users can store photos, apps, calendars and access songs on iTunes without having them to store in the phone’s memory.
Camera
The iPad 3 will come with an improvised camera, since the previous version of the table didn’t seem impressive enough. Unlike the iPad 2, the new tablet will come with LED flash to support the camera. It is expected to have a 5MP camera with 1080p or 720p video recording quality of 60 frames per second. The technology made by OmniVision will help reduce the size of the table by 20 percent.
Fingerprint Proof
Apple has already been granted patents on this technology, and is working real hard to make the iPad3 fingerprint proof. The touch screen will be coated with oleophobic materials, which will reduce the oil and fingerprints on the screen.
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