Quote:
Originally Posted by penchanted 
A retina display model at twice the resolution would not be a huge "fragmentation" - this is what they did for the iPhone 4 and it worked fine. The developers would need to rework their graphical elements to optimize for the new screen but things would still work pretty well.
I will lay this out a slightly different way.
I believe that all the engineering for a Retina Display iPad has already been done because I think that is what Apple hoped to ship this release. Due to cost and production yields of the display, they were forced into Plan B.
I think that the rumors of production delays were incorrectly reported at a much later date and may have had something to do with the display yields.
It seems to me that production orders for the iPads went in late. They are supposed to have 400-600k units for the US launch which seems light, especially considering they are launching in 25 countries 2 weeks later. Maybe they are holding back a half million units for the second launch but it sounds like they will be well behind demand for some time.
You may be right that a adding another iPad is not in the cards this year, but I think Apple will look at the competition (whatever that might be) and make a decision this summer (assuming they can get decent display yields). They would introduce a new model atop the current line at a higher price and then work the higher-res display throughout the lineup next spring. I am certainly not willing to bet this would happen but I also think that Apple is prepared to respond quickly to any perceived threat of their market position.
A retina display model at twice the resolution would not be a huge "fragmentation" - this is what they did for the iPhone 4 and it worked fine. The developers would need to rework their graphical elements to optimize for the new screen but things would still work pretty well.
I will lay this out a slightly different way.
I believe that all the engineering for a Retina Display iPad has already been done because I think that is what Apple hoped to ship this release. Due to cost and production yields of the display, they were forced into Plan B.
I think that the rumors of production delays were incorrectly reported at a much later date and may have had something to do with the display yields.
It seems to me that production orders for the iPads went in late. They are supposed to have 400-600k units for the US launch which seems light, especially considering they are launching in 25 countries 2 weeks later. Maybe they are holding back a half million units for the second launch but it sounds like they will be well behind demand for some time.
You may be right that a adding another iPad is not in the cards this year, but I think Apple will look at the competition (whatever that might be) and make a decision this summer (assuming they can get decent display yields). They would introduce a new model atop the current line at a higher price and then work the higher-res display throughout the lineup next spring. I am certainly not willing to bet this would happen but I also think that Apple is prepared to respond quickly to any perceived threat of their market position.
I really can't agree. Plans are made a year in advance with Apple. Apple doesn't come out with new models every few months as many other companies do. It's not likely that Apple changed their plans on something as major as a display Rez change at such a late date. They would know about manufacturing problems with a part well in advance of manufacturing, or even design decisions.
As far as the iPhone 4 goes, I did say that Apple doesn't do this with current generation parts. That means that there is only one iPhone 4 design, not two. They do sell the 3GS for much cheaper, but it's still the last generation, and people know it. I don't see them doing this with the iPad. They have also stated quite strongly, and I mentioned this as well, that they will NOT be a premium manufacturer in price. Steve specifically took a shot at the Xoom when he showed the pricing chart for the iPad, and said that only one of the six was priced above $800. I'm very convinced that they will stay with this pricing, and not go any higher.
I don't know why you guys think that it's so important to do this for September. It won't gain them much in sales, and it leads to a lot of problems for them in hardware and software engineering. Same in marketing and distribution.
It would have to be a desperate move on their part.
