iPad 3 May Be Scarce/Called iPad HD

By Alex Angove

Last updated 02 March 2012

It looks like our hopes of Apple learning from past mistakes will be shattered. Reports are coming in that the iPad 3 will see severe supply shortages that may persist in to Q2 of this year. At the same time we’re hearing that the next Apple tablet may even not be called the iPad 3 at all, but rather the iPad HD.

Supply issues first. On Thursday DigiTimes claimed that anonymous sources in a position to know have let on that the new high-rez panels of the iPad 3/iPad HD are currently more than a little scarce. The producer of the displays, Sharp, isn’t expected to turn up production until the second quarter of this year. No word on any displays to do with that supposed 8 inch iPad we heard rumors of a few weeks previously, but that doesn’t count it out as a possibility just yet.

The fact that the iPad 3 could be renamed as the iPad HD conjures up a range of emotions and possibilities. It’s truly puzzling that Apple would be considering such a move, seeing as the company already got enough slack for releasing the iPhone 4S instead of the iPhone 5 last year. Not gracing its customers with the iPad 3, even if the only difference is the title, could be asking for more.

A name change could also infer that the iPad 3/iPad HD isn’t worthy of the title of iPad 3. If you think about it, an iPad HD could represent something similar to an iPad 2S. We really haven’t heard too much confirmation about anything other than the iPad 3/iPad HD’s retina display, so it’s within the realm of possibility that we’ll be seeing minimal hardware upgrades with Apple mainly focusing on the screen resolution.

We have to say, while we would be surprised by such a move we wouldn’t really be that disappointed. There’s not a hugely noticeable difference in performance between the original iPad and the iPad 2 in day to day tasks. Only the most demanding of apps really seem to highlight the faster processor of the iPad 2.

We’ve also stated on many occasions that we’d like to see manufacturers start focusing more on areas like graphics, RAM and memory rather than just upping the processor speed incessantly. Yes, dual-core phones are fantastic and quad-cores may be even better. But right now it’s difficult to find a use for a dual-core smartphone, let alone a quad-core. A quad-core 1.5GHz device with only 1GB of RAM and no dedicated graphics card seems a little silly at this point.

So if Apple has decided to dump its money in to upgrading the viewing experience rather than other hardware specs that really won’t matter for a while yet then more power to them. That being said, if the only real upgrade is to the screen and Apple starts charging like it’s a new device (as they almost certainly would, should it turn out to be the case) then that’s a different story.

Of course this is all conjecture built on rumor and shouldn’t be taken as fact. We’ll know more on March 7^th when Apple finally unveils the iPad 3/iPad HD so stay tuned until then.