Technology industry pundits have stared at their tea leaves, sifted through the entrails and made their decision: there’s at least one new iPad arriving next month. Relying on leaks from Apple’s Far Eastern suppliers, the smart money is on a March launch in San Francisco. Apple, however, has yet to confirm so much as the date.
The iPad 3 is likely to be a 7in version of Apple’s tablet. Steve Jobs once described this smaller size as “dead on arrival”. But Tim Cook, the late chief executive’s successor, will have noted the success of Amazon’s Kindle Fire, a 7in tablet running the Android operating system. Around 6m have been sold in America alone.
There may also be a new version of the 9.7in iPad with a screen resolution on a par with the iPhone 4 and 4S. Longer shots include the addition of a near-field communications chip, to enable the tablet to make contactless payments, and a 4G Sim, for use on America’s faster mobile broadband networks.
Fuelling the rumours is news that retailers in America have started discounting the iPad 2 (“while stocks last”) and, let’s be frank, the fact that March was when the iPad 2 was unveiled last year. All will (probably) be revealed very soon.
Price (and much else) to be confirmed
