It’s finally official. Apple sends out invitations today for its latest iPad launch event. The shindig will be held in San Francisco at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, on Wednesday, March 7. Beyond that, Apple withholds any details, preferring to preserve the element of surprise. Leaked photographs of various components claimed to make up the new iPad make several good guesses possible.
First and foremost, it’s believed the new product will sport a high resolution retina display, running in 2,048 x 1,536 resolution. Such a display would have more than adequate resolution to display 1080p video content. (This ties in neatly with rumors of an updated AppleTV that would also offer 1080p display capabilities. The AppleTV runs iOS and essentially consists of the same hardware as the iPhone or iPad, minus the touchscreen, speakers, microphone, and battery. Retailers are reporting low stock of the current AppleTV model, adding at least some credence to this possibility.)
The third revision of the iPad is also widely rumored to include 4G LTE cellular capabilities (in its cellular-capable versions), offering a big speed boost over existing 3G models. Apple claimed a purposeful decision to leave off 4G LTE functionality in the iPhone 4S due to issues of increased power consumption, leading to speculation the iPad 3 also includes a larger battery to alleviate this issue.
Upgraded front and rear facing cameras and a faster processor round up the rumored improvements, with much debate raging over Apple opting for a faster dual-core (A5X) processor or a quad-core (A6) processor in the final product.
Could the best kept secret turn out to be pricing? A Chinese micro-blogging site, Sina Weibo, posted a claimed price list, depicting the correct U.S. prices for current iPad 2 models with $70 to $80 price hikes for their corresponding cellular-enabled and WiFi-only iPad 3 counterparts. However, this contradicts many recent rumors of an expected iPad 2 price drop when the new version is released. In fact, Best Buy and Micro Center retailers currently sell the iPad 2 at a $50 discount. Perhaps the iPad 2 is soon to become a discontinued item, explaining its price reductions, while the iPad 3 will launch with the higher initial pricing? Such a plan could pose problems for Apple’s adoption of their new iBooks initiative, as many schools express concerns about the high initial cost of iPads for every student offsetting the savings of electronic textbooks.
I’m personally techcited about the new iPad, as I just sold my original iPad 64GB 3G model I purchased on launch day. I didn’t feel like the iPad 2 offered enough to justify upgrading, but the combination of iOS5 and new, more powerful apps proved to overwhelm the processor in my original tablet, leading to random crashes and occasionally sluggish performance. I just hope I don’t have to wait in a huge line to get this one!
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