The rumour that Apple plans to launch the iPad 3 before the end of the year simply refuses to go away. Today MacRumors reports on a story in the Economic Daily News, via Reuters, which, according to the translated version, says that Apple is planning to launch the iPad 3 in Q4 by “shortening the iPad Product life cycle.†The report also says that the iPad 3’s screen resolution will be pushed up to 2560x1920, doubling full HD, which is the maximum that a 9.7-inch display panel could achieve.
According to the story, the reason for Apple wanting to launch two iPads in the same year is so that it can keep ahead of the completion. Apparently Apple is concerned that many more tablets from rival manufacturers have emerged in 2011, and it wants to stay ahead of the chasing pack by surprising everyone with the launch of a new iPad before the end of the year, while other manufacturers are still busy responding to the iPad 2. Sounds a little far-fetched? Maybe not. As MacRumors notes, back in February, before the iPad 2 had even been released, both DaringFireball and TechCrunch mentioned that Apple wanted to move its iPad release schedule to September, but could not afford to wait until September 2012 to do this, so instead would actually release the iPad 3 in September 2011. But would Apple really want to launch a new iPhone and iPad in the same month?
Source: iPad 3 Coming This Year With 2560x1920 Resolution Display? - Mac Rumors