Rumor: Suppliers preparing for October launch of Apple's iPhone 5, iPad 3 - Page 2

While what you say is true; but 2 inches. Is that really going to help? Plus, really got to watch 'how you hold it'. Generally a noticable angle of incedence of the flash is needed (say a couple degrees or more?) to reduce red-eye. Picture a photag holding flash over head as an example.

Realist!

iPad 3, I call BS

I, as a consumer would really wish Apple would confirm/deny these things. I'm actually (or was) about to buy an IPad2 and now am waiting to see what happens. It's not really that hard to post an upgrade schedule or something without revealing the details to maintain product security.

The benefit will be greater when the subject is close to the camera, which, coincientally is when redeye is worst because the flash is more intense at close distances. The farther away the subject, the more directly the flash will enter their eye, so you are correct that 2 inches won't help much on farther away subjects. But the reflection will also be weaker due to the distance.

Of course, the downside is that as you move the flash away from the camera lens, you also start to create shaddows that the camera will pick up. Again, the problem will be more pronounced with a close subject. So your close in photo of your friend might end up with their nose casting a shadow on their face.

The best option would be to put the lens in the middle of the iPhone on the long edge, and then putting a flash on both sides of the lens at the far edges. Each flash can be half as powerful and provide even lighting. Of course, there's no room to put the camera module behind the screen, so that won't happen either. You just can't win.

That is a really unfortunate reference. I hope whatever strategy Apple chooses is not as misdirected, counterproductive, and financially ruinous as that other 'shock and awe' campaign.

You make some good points and they're very similar to what I've been thinking lately.

1) Anyone and everyone calling "bull" on this rumor are simply not paying attention to the market. Stop blinding yourselves with Apple keynote slogans and "tradition". If anything, people should be more inclined to believe such a rumor with Apple already breaking a 4 year tradition of having a new iPhone ready-for-market in the June/July timeframe.

2. Competition. While Apple is dominating the tablet space, that is not a given for this holiday season. Even though I feel the iPad 2 is above and beyond all possible alternatives, that doesn't mean every paying customer will think the same way. Last year, Apple had ZERO competition leading into the holiday quarter. This year is not the same story. Even though the competition is garbage, and almost identically priced, there are iPad alternatives leading into Q4 of 2011. If you haven't noticed, the Xoom and the Galaxy tab are being heavily advertised (much more than iPad), and the ads are not half bad (meaning they are utterly misleading about the product's abilities, enough to convince you that its as good as the iPad).

3. Availability. As far as I know, you still can't get an iPad 2. Now, that is a bit of a snarky statement, as you certainly can get one...if you order online and wait...or if you call around to every store within 5 hours of you, and beat out the others vying for the same inventory unit. When you can walk into any Apple store and just "buy one", then I consider the product "available". This unavailability to the general shopper is likely to drive up sales of craplets, unless Apple can get its inventory situation under control by September.

4. Apple is undoubtedly ramping up production of iPad 2 to be ready for this holiday season, but they may very well be preparing to introduce an addition to the iPad lineup. A new iPad, perhaps called iPad 3, but with a higher resolution display, better cameras, etc. etc. If this new iPad is being sourced from new suppliers and being built by different factories it might solve both of Apple's tablet concerns going into Q4...squash any potential competition, spark the "new" factor again, and patch inventory holes.

Its quite obvious the iPhone is up for refresh. All rumors abut the iPhone production line point to a decrease in production capacity in the near term.

So what about the iPad production rumors? Its the other way around. Apple has had the mother all all backlog for a device with no credible competition on the market and it plans to sell as many as they can produce.

It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to have another iPad appear in 2011. Both the iPad 2and the iPhone 4 are smash hits. Its the iPod touch that will get refreshed in the Fall and its the iPod touch that lacks unique identity.

I am still find it fascinated to find out that people who know very well what the iPad and iPhone are, have no idea what the iPod touch is. (at least in my country)

I am 100% certain that had Apple releases a new iPod Touch sized round two hand - two thumb use with a catchy name it will at least double it sales.

Two hand - two thumb means that you when you hold it in landscape, the thumb of your one hand can reach about 60% of the screen. This translates in to about a 5" screen - a perfect size for a pocket iOS device that is not a phone.

Since this device will be perfect for all the games and apps in the entertainment category, i would bet on a catchy one word name actually describing its main purpose, hence: iPlay

Screen resolution could be the current iPad one bringing it to retina standart for its expected usage distance. Using 1024x768 will also be a great developer suport trick as all devs have to do would be to mix their iPhone 4 App interface with iPad size graphics to create an iPlay optimized app.

I have been onto this posibility since February: http://lantinian.blogspot.com/2011/0...ipod-play.html

iPad 3 in 2011 is wrong. WRONG. Any who thinks otherwise lives in a fantasy world.

iPad 2.5 is wrong. It will go to 3. This is a "simple" consumer device and Apple will keep it that way. Releasing major rev < 1 year will make people mad.

I've been thinking similar thoughts for a while now myself.

I have a better name than "iPlay" though .... "iPod."

This is a long-shot guess, but ... it *could* be that the recent spate of buying up web domains and registering the "iPod" as a trademark in various countries (both things they haven't done before), means Apple might be moving forward with the iPod name *just* for the touch versions, and re-branding the old junk with some other name.

Maybe the iPod nano and mini merge to become a single device that's an "iPlayer" ???

What I really don't get is the reasoning most of you have for why iPad 3 can't launch this year. Not of it makes any sense, whatsoever.

No Competition? That's utterly and completely wrong. Please don't misunderstand....I don't personally believe that any product on the market is anywhere NEAR the iPad 2....but that doesn't mean a damn thing in terms of the overall market. Turn on your TV (can't believe I'm suggesting that), the amount of advertising for Xoom and Galaxy tab has to have Apple's interest, if it not yours.

It's unclear whether it would need a faster CPU, it might need a faster GPU - but even that isn't clear - if Apple were to double resolution in both directinos then they could continue to render high 3D stuff like games in the lower resolution without horrible artifacting.

SDK is sorted, people have already spotted stuff in iOS 5 that suggests software support for a higher resolution iPad, and also the resolution doubling was already effectively supported as that is what happened between iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4.

Really from a tech perspective it probably comes down to the GPU and component availability.

That actually makes a lot of sense, like an "iPad 2R" of sorts (R for resolution?)

I hope it doesn't come to that, however. I'm off on holiday at the end of August and plan to get an iPad 2 at the NY Apple Store (Exchange Rate from British Pounds to US Dollars ) - If they do release an improved iPad2 two months down the line I will run my head through a brick wall

Red eye is a problem precisely because of the peculiarly exact optics of the situation.

light comes in from the flash, is focused by the eye, hits the retina, bounces, is refocused by the eye, travels back along the exact same path (assuming you're looking right into the camera) and then hits the camera's optics.

The reason why the red is so intense is because of that refocusing, normally light that strikes a surface that isn't flat and polished, such as the human body, is scattered in every direction, but in this instance it is coming back in a collimated beam.

So yes, 2 inches could be significant - not enough to totally remove the problem perhaps, but enough to significantly reduce it.

It would. The Retina display iPads can all be $100-$200 more expensive at all levels ( controlling for other factors) and the iPad non-retina displays can then reduce in price. Margins are maintained if for every $100 cheaper entry level iPad you sell a $100 more expensive iPad.

In fact this is what I think APple will do:

1) Have a classic iPad and iPhone line. no retina display.
2) Have an iPad HD line. Retina display.
3) Price from $399 to $1,199 for top of line retina.

I think it could go like this....

Lots of iPad3 and iPhone5 rumors are put into circulation and talked up for a couple of months.

no iPad3 arrives in Sept/Oct, or is really 'iPad 2.5' or similar. Same for iPhone5

then, AAPL dives because Apple 'missed a target', 'underperformed', 'failed to get a device to market in time', etc.

No, this is how it'll go:

Stock climbs before [insert Apple event here]. Event happens. Stock immediately plummets even if Apple's offerings were better than the rumors.

Because that's what always happens.

If an iPad is unveiled this fall this is exactly what we'll see. Apple will just sell the current iPad alongside a new iPad 2 RD.

Drop the price of the iPad 2 and offer the high-res one and the competition won't know what to do. It'll be game over before it even starts

I see this as a possibility too, but I don't know if the type of App fragmentation that would bring would be worth it. As far as screen resolution it should share its res with the iPhone/iPod line if it's going to be made to play iPod Touch games though.

iPhone 5 will have a 4 inch 1080x720 resolution screen. Advertised as having a High Definition Retina Display

well, sure, that's what often happens, though lately it's been more like 'stock stays marginally level before event, then drops during and after the event'.

building up additional large-scale product rumors even when no specific large-scale event is on the horizon -- now they are double dipping!

This rumor sounds so retarded.

Just for the sake of discussion, let's say that this retarded rumor turned out to be true. If Apple commits themselves to an amateurish hyper release schedule for some of their products from now on, I can tell you right now that I wouldn't be picking up an iPad3. Why would I when I could just wait a few more months and go for iPad 4, which is going to destroy iPad 3 in terms of features. And the iPad 4 would be available about 1 year after the release of iPad 2, falling in line with the regular yearly release schedule.

This would hurt Apple pretty badly in the long run I suspect. Very few customers are going to be buying multiple iPads a year. There are quite a few customers who would get a new iPad every year though. Apple is not run by morons.

I am going to trash Apple so badly if they come out with an iPad3 according to the schedule in this retarded rumor, and I can guarantee you that I won't be the only one.

If this is the way it comes down, all I can say is that it's different from anything Apple has ever done before (which is why I think it unlikely), and will probably fail if they try it.

It's generally a bad idea to sell two products that are feature identical with the exception of one has "crappier" parts than the other, so it's cheaper. Some manufacturers do this, Apple doesn't.

It rarely works in any case as it's only a strategy for the budget conscious types who are so cheap they will actually buy a bad device simply because it's cheaper. For instance the netbook market is like this, and Dell sells their computers like this. In almost all cases though, we are talking about the low-end of the market where margins are razor thin, profitability is doubtful, and consumers are looking for cheap crap.

If a person is the type of customer that is willing to look at a fuzzy screen for two years simply because it saved them $50 of the purchase price, then they aren't going to be interested in Apple products anyway (until they get dirt cheap in the long tail of the market).

So the two product strategy is *not* the way Apple usually does business, it's a strategy for the low-end of a *dying* market, (when we are actually in the early stages of a red-hot market), and it generally doesn't work very well anyway.

It's sort of what happened with the iPod if you think about it. Apple's competitors all assumed it was playing for margin and would be content to sit at 20-30% of the market for personal music players - instead Apple released new product aggressively and cut prices aggressively till they owned the entire segment.

Back in the early days of the iPod (an admittedly simpler product) we'd see minor refreshes sometimes 3 months after a release. We saw the 4gen-photo launch on a few months after the regular 4gen. We saw the nano and the shuffle and minor variations in size, screen, colour, video etc as Apple filled out their product line till there was no room for competitors to break in.

I think they're hoping to do something very similar with the iPad and to be their own competitor - providing a range of options that vary in price and performance but still provide the same build quality and overall experience.

I'll buy that. Literally!

I find it funny you say all that when that's exactly what Apple did when they introduced the RD iPhone 4 and continued selling the iPhone 3GS alongside it. Circumstances are a little different since the 3GS had a full year run before the iPhone 4 was released, but if Apple were to add another iPad model now, it wouldn't be as "out-of-character" as you say...

Bingo.

I liked what Apple did with the iPod back then because with all the updates it was always in the news cycle and people were always talking about it. Keeping the buzz around the iPod high is really what brought Apple market dominance. It wasn't until recently that the updates of the lineup slowed down to once a year minor refreshes.

This is what I meant by 'Shock and awe', Apple just rained down updates so that every time competitors thought they had a point of differentiation or a price advantage they found that they didn't, and had to go back to the drawing board, invest a load of money on a new product and lose a ton of money on product that they couldn't get out of channel.

Edit:

Just saw this graphic on The Register and it kinda blew my mind

By the third iPad release no matter where Steve is the stock will take off. The company will have been run for several quarters with increased growth, year over year, with Cook at the helm.

It's amazing there are millions more Android devices out in the wild but iPhone users still browse the web more than Android users and iPad users web consumption is unprecedented considering there are far fewer iPads in the wild than Android or iPhone.

As far as Apple implementing Shock and awe tactics with the iPad now would be the time.

Android is and will continue to get squeezed on two fronts.

Not that I'm lending any credence to the iPad 3 rumour, but as of iOS 4.2, the SDK already supports retina displays on iPhone and iPad. To support retina graphics on the iPhone, pretty much all you have to do is add images named something@2x.png to the app, so that's probably all you'd need to do on iPad 3 as well, and in fact some of Apple's own iPad apps already have such images embedded in them, which was one of the reasons the retina iPad rumour started in the first place.

It's almost certainly already possible to make and release iPad apps that are 'retina-ready' for when the iPad 3 eventually comes out.

Trust me, I'm an iOS developer ;-)

I think the iPhone segment also includes iPod touch, but still the iPad section is astonishing.

DIdn't Steve Jobs say 2011 was the year of iPad 2?

Yes, but that doesn't mean the iPad 2S (2R, 2HD, 2louselautrec) can't come out in [insert fall month here] and give us [insert pointless new feature being screamed about here].

Or so they'd have you believe.

I've had 3 iPod touch first generations and all of them had to be replaced with malfunctioning headphone jacks (the current one is starting to malfunction after having it for less than 1 year)
I've had many classic iPods that never had the headphone malfunction, so I am determined that there is a flaw in the design of the 1G iPod touch.

Anyway, this has prompted me to finally give in and buy an iPhone, and I might as well wait until September when the usual announcements are for the iPhone 5. Is there a possibility that there will be a CDMA unlocked iPhone available so I can use it on MetroPCS? I don't need much of a data plan as I use bandwidth heavy apps on Wifi only so I do not want to shell out $100+ a month like my friends do for their iPhone contracts (and then wonder why they never have any money to do anything). Currently I am paying $37 a month for unlimited minutes and texts, and I think an additional $20 would get me a basic data plan, which sounds like a good bargain.

On another note, when do case manufacturers typically supply their products for new iPhones on the market? Would like to buy a nice high quality case for my new iPhone 5, like an Otterbox.

That's silly. Phone manufacturers are literally upgrading their phones as fast as physically possible and nobody begrudges them for it. There would be some people who would be mad about it (Apple already has their money and they really have nothing to be mad about), but there would be many more people who would go right out and buy the upgraded iPad. I'd jump on an iPad3 with upgraded display. I have an iPad now and can't justify the upgrade to the 2.

I'm in on this too +1

The interesting thing to consider is that Apple wants every member of a household to have their own iPad... it's a magical personal device.

Regardless of whether you have an iPad 1 or 2, they lose very little of their value. They can be sold, or moved down the food-chain at home, or with relatives, etc.

Apple envisions every family member having their very own iDevice, possibly 2 or 3 even. It's what iCloud is for.

An iPad HD or Pro, with a mark-up, does nothing to hurt iPad2 IMO.

I agree and want to throw some of my ideas in on top of that.

Apple is in a unique position in the tablet market: the only brand who is able to make money out of it. With the iPad 2, demand went to the roof and can not be satisfied to date. Fantastic for Apple, but they could do even better. Releasing another model and keeping the fantastic iPad2 would be a smart move IMHO. Apple gives revenue away still.

Two models make sense for Apple because:
a) It is easier to ramp up production to demand with two products, by replacing bottleneck parts for the new model.
b) With two models on the market, Apple can cover a broader price range and grow the addressable market.
c) Two models makes it easier to handle the supply chain: some customers will choose the available model instead of waiting to the preferred one and with the pricing Apple can balance demand between the two models.
d) With a fast pace Apple raises the bar to enter the market and makes it even riskier for the competition to stay in the game. It's not easy to get that kind of money to compete with Apple, without showing to be able catching up.

Apple broaden its range of products with the iPod, the iPhone and will do it sooner or later with the iPad too. Did I say sooner or later? I'd better say likely sooner than later!

Absolutely, in fact the optimum number of models may be more like four or five - the key is to have enough models that they reduce their component risks and general supply problems, while not resulting in significant platform fragmentation.