Josh OngInsiders suggest that Apple could choose AMOLED technology or a high-resolution standard as part of its plan to upgrade the image quality on the iPad, DigiTimes reported on Monday.
"Sources from touch panel makers pointed out that Apple recently released its latest tablet PC plan and is asking the panel makers to provide products that are capable to support higher image quality than the current iPad 2," the report read.
"Apple may even choose AMOLED panel or panel that support Full HD standard to accomplish the plan. However, since the project is still at the initial planning stage, the actual products are unlikely to appear in 2011."
Sources also cautioned that Apple may hold off on moving to AMOLED because rival Samsung mostly controls the technology. "If Apple is adopting AMOLED panel into its device, Apple would be facing a great risk having the key technologies being held by its competitors," the report noted.
Upstream component makers pointed out that, given the production ramp up for the iPad 2, launching an iPad 3 this year would "simply bite off share" from the iPad 2.
Further quashing rumors of an iPad 3 in 2011, sources said that they have yet to receive "any notice for next generation iPad products" and do not believe the iPad 2 is a "transitional product."
Even before the iPad 2 had been announced, rumors emerged earlier this year that Apple would release an iPad 3 in 2011.
Those rumors appeared to have been put to rest after Apple CEO Steve Jobs declared 2011 "the year of iPad 2." However, intermittent reports since then have continued to suggest that Apple could release an iPad upgrade in 2011.
According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo with Concorde Securities, Apple faced supply constraints and cost limitations that prevented the iPad maker from adding an improved display to the iPad 2. Kuo has suggested that a Retina display is still in the pipeline, and could make its way into the iPad 3 in early 2012.
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24 Comments
I never put any credibility into such rumors. People just guessing. It ain't real until Steve Jobs says, "and one more thing..."
I really hate the "iPad 3 with Retina Display" rumors. They are absolute crap! cramming 4 times 1024x768 into a display of that size would have both an insanely unnecessary resolution, with cost way too much, and would be hard to develop apps for! Along with drastically decreased battery life. A screen at that resolution would be almost 2 times the pixels of a 1080p display!
I never put any credibility into such rumors. People just guessing. It ain't real until Steve Jobs says, "and one more thing..."
What makes this one worse is that gruber started it. I think he did just to mess with everyone. It came with a HUGE disclaimer on his part, but look where it went...
As soon as the rumors about the iPhone being delayed started coming out I thought it was less likely we'd see an iPad3 this year. I do however think Apple should switch one of the iDevices (either iPhone or iPad) to a September release cycle. The regular iPods which traditionally come out at that time no longer generate as much publicity.
What makes this one worse is that gruber started it. I think he did just to mess with everyone. It came with a HUGE disclaimer on his part, but look where it went...
I don?t see how he can be blamed. It wasn?t just him posting a disclaimer in case it didn?t pan out, but him being completely skeptica about it?s likelihood. And from what I can see he wasn?t the first to promote the rumour. I think Engadget has a lot more readers than Gruber has.
I?d point out his disbelieving comments but there are so many that it?s just easier to post the links to his blog.
I expect to see denser pixel densities on Macs with Lion before we see an iPad sporting a 2048x1536 resolution. Even if you can get an Imagination Tech iGPU to technically support it how would it affect battery life and GPU performance with such a high resolution?