Apple to announce iPad 3 in early March, shares approaching $500

Shawn Knight

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Apple is said to be planning a media event for the first week in March where the company plans to debut their next generation tablet, tentatively known as the iPad 3. The event will be held in San Francisco, likely at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, a location that Apple has utilized for previous announcements, according to sources close to the situation as reported by All Things D.

The sources didn’t provide a street date but if Apple follows previous product announcement protocol, we could expect to see the new iPad in stores sometime in mid-March.

Hardware-wise, the iPad 3 is said to be pretty much what rumors have pointed to thus far. It will likely look and feel very similar to the iPad 2 but with a faster processor, improved graphics and an ultra high resolution display running at 2048 x 1536. How fast the the A6 processor in the new iPad will be, however, remains a topic of debate.

Most have speculated that the A6 will be a quad-core component which would be significantly faster than the A5’s dual-core offering, but a report yesterday from Joshua Topolsky at The Verge claims his sources now indicate that the A6 SoC will be a dual-core chip.

Other rumors have suggested a slightly thicker tablet to make room for a larger battery and 4G LTE capability, but we have our doubts on this one. Is it really Apple’s style to make a thicker (and perhaps less attractive) product?

On a side note, Apple shares have jumped over $16 from yesterday’s closing price based on the news.

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We all knew this was going to happen when the other iPad came out... Clever marketing had this drive delayed so they could squeeze a few dollars more out of the old one... Jobs took care of that idea as the last thing he did for Apple.
 
Apple has managed their growth curve very well. When they introduced the iPhone through only one provider it felt, "weird." The question in many minds was, "how do they compete with the rest of the universe with just one provider." And, pray tell, what if I "don't like AT&T" as a provider? That impression has been amplified, for some, with the Android roll-out.

But Apple has used the gradual rollout to ramp-up their supply chain processes, and build their "war chest" big enough that when they did roll out to other providers they can afford to pre commit to component purchases so far in advance that none of their competitors can buy out from under them, and arguably the manufacturing skids are sufficiently "well-greased," to ramp up higher volumes for additional carriers, with just enough backlog in order fulfillment to help stoke the fires of the feeding frenzy.

Now I can't debate the fact that the cash hoarding seems excessive right now. What company needs $93 billion in liquid reserves? But, at this point they're virtually an unstoppable....( I say "virtually," barring any severe screw-ups either in product releases or recalls) ...force. And then there is that other wild card they can't control. It's called "innovation," something may just be percolating in someone's garage or basement at right this very minute. But maybe they can, because like they did with Siri, they certainly have the ducats to out bid anybody else that may show an interest in emerging technologies. I know if I were a struggling technology developer I wouldn't mind my net worth catapulted into the stratosphere by an Apple buyout or partnership.

Like all the other technology and Apple watchers, I'm looking forward to the rollout of the iPad 3 and the iPhone 5.
 
unless adobe and apple kiss and make up, there will be no flash. Which they should, as it means moar moneyz for both of them.

plus I WANT MAC OSX!
 
Apple has said previously that Flash will never be on their devices. There's even a techspot article on it somewhere.

The screen would be amazing. I'm not sure how the Android camp will respond with higher ppi screens, as the rendering method used by Apple doesn't make things smaller.. Too bad the CPU/GPU will be held back by the OS as well.

Also, an interesting note: iPhone 4 is thicker than 3G/S, and it has a fraction smaller screen too.
 
All Apple would need to do is upgrade the screen and do nothing else and it will sell another 35+ million units in a quarter. You know Americans are really "struggling" in this economy when Apple stock is an at all-time high..... You aren't a cool person anymore unless you own an iPad 3 and a new MacBook Air at Starbucks even if you are a starving student on Kraft Dinner.

Even though I don't own an Apple product, I own Apple stock. I go to coffee shops around Canada and US and I see young people with Apple products. I take the train in major metropolitan cities like New York, Chicago, Toronto, and I see more people using Apple products. While I am impartial to the brand, I think they've done great things and that make technology "cool" in the eyes of the mainstream public. Even us "boring PC" guys can benefit by buying Apple stock. :)

Rumors have it though that the new IPad 3 will be a dual-core only. However, I don't think Apple's customers would care, as long as the experience and apps are what they want, they don't really care how fast the processor is or how many cores it has.
 
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