My guess is that it will be a silent refresh, just a web store update and a press release.
Doing a media event for a slight incremental update does not make any sense. It devalues the whole idea/importance of a media event.
Thanks for the response. I would totally agree, but what about the introduction of Thunderbolt? An entirely new protocol? It seems to me that that warrants a small media event. The only issue is, why have invitations not been sent out? I was looking for the history of Apple's events (i.e. which releases warranted a media event, how long was the lapse between invitations and the event etc.) but couldn't find anything? Is there any precedence for something like this? I'm not talking about a WWDC size event, just the small room that I think Apple has announced single product lines or iPhone software in.
So this interim iPad would only come in lighter, with a better display, albeit not retina-like, more RAM, a more powerful CPU and a better graphics engine.
As stopgaps go, sounds rather decent. Really, though, why would Apple bother to release an update on such a product in 2011. All Apple would have to do is up the RAM to 32 gigs on the entry model and the competition would be a step behind for the rest of the year.
Even if Apple has a retina-like display in the pipeline, it seems rather logical that this would be an upgrade that would more likely see the light of day in 2012 if not later. Certainly if the costs associated with such a display are prohibitive in March, what could possibly happen by later this year to dramatically alter that.
Here's something else to consider. If this unfolds as reported by this site, tomorrow Apple will update their macbook pro line, including the introduction of a significant new technology, and yet Apple does not deem this announcement worthy of a formal media event. Are we led to believe, however, that a minor tweaking of the iPad would warrant such an event days later. Not a chance. If Apple figures the iPad upgrade it's going to unveil on March 2 warrants a media event, the product to be unveiled will be a significant refresh of the iPad. And forget about Apple announcing the device on March 2 and shipping it months later. Ridiculous. No way that Apple would give the competition months of lead time to respond to the next version of the iPad and it would certainly not be OK with making such an announcement and then compensating by lowering the price of the current version, still soldiering on for a few more months. If you had a hot-selling product would you cut into profit margin by announcing months in advance what the successor would offer. Obviously not.
If the reasoning was that Apple would need to offer something to convince customers to not jump ship in the months leading up to the new product becoming available, surely that would be accomplished just as easily by simply continuing to sell the first-gen iPad with no announcement. Everybody knows in advance that the iPad 2 would be an upgrade on the iPad 1 so leaving it to consumers' imagination what that upgrade could entail, would only serve to entice consumers to wait on an announcement.
Tomorrow the MacBook Pro gets a significant refresh and on March 2, the iPad 2 comes to market. In June we get the new iPhone and in September we'll get the new iPods. Also getting updates sooner than later will be, of course, the iMac and the Mac Mini. There will also be a Sandy Bridge Macbook Air this year. This is the line-up that Apple will take into the Christmas buying season. That's all there is and it should be plenty.
If you're waiting for upgrades on the upgrades in calendar 2011, good luck with that.
If they manage to up the RAM to 32GB I think their competitors will need 5 years.
While it does seem a little far fetched, I wouldn't rule it out completely. They need to release something to fight off all the Android tablets that weren't around a year ago. A slightly new processor, more RAM and a FaceTime camera, great. However, if we think of software for a minute, iOS 4.2 just hit the iPad in November, if the same development time takes place then iOS 5.0 could be released for the iPhone in June and if it takes until Oct/November for it to be ported to the iPad, you could have a new model (the true upgrade) with the new software. The old ones will still get the software update as well and you get June/July - iPhone, Sept - iPods, Oct/Nov - iPad. The Xmas shopping would be manic. ATM, they're releasing iPads with old software on and that's not ideal in the slightest.
These iPad rumors are getting really stupid and they don't make any sense. If Apple is not satisfied with iPad 2 before they release it then they will not release it. It is that simple. There is no reason to release a new iPad now and another one in few months.
Let alone call it iPad 1.5 or something stupid like that.
Crap! Now I don't know what to think! I guess I will just have to wait and see and continue to use my iP4 like an itty, bitty iPad!
Is not having a Retina Display on the iPad2 a deal breaker for most users? Of course, it would be nice, but the iPads I've seen in the stores looked great.
"Next year is the year when Apple will introduce an all new design for the MacBook Pro product family, which is already under development at Quanta in Taiwan," the report says, reminding readers that Apple likes to overhaul the industrial design of its most popular Macs every 2 to 3 years.
I'm totally on the wrong refresh cycle. I'm in desperate need of a new machine. This update will be a huge jump in specs for me with SSD, 8GB RAM, etc., but it's way more fun to get the 'all-new' designs!
Tomorrow the MacBook Pro gets a significant refresh and on March 2, the iPad 2 comes to market. In June we get the new iPhone and in September we'll get the new iPods. Also getting updates sooner than later will be, of course, the iMac and the Mac Mini. There will also be a Sandy Bridge Macbook Air this year. This is the line-up that Apple will take into the Christmas buying season. That's all there is and it should be plenty.
If you're waiting for upgrades on the upgrades in calendar 2011, good luck with that.
I really think that whatever is announced tomorrow e.g. "Thunderbolt" or something else. It is needed to be in place for the iPad announcement to have maximum impact. I think you get an iMac and Macbook update this week and iPad next. That makes the consumer line complete (just need iPhone 5 and new iPod this year) If there is an september iPad it is a new model (different screen size) and will be an addition to the line and not the next version.
Yes MacBooks will bet redesigned for 2012. it will have been 4 years on the same case design by then so it will be time.
"....with features such as instant-on, standard SSD drives, slimmer enclosures, and the omission of optical drives expected to become more prevalent in many of the models planned for future design cycles!"
Yep, this is where it's heading! MBA's for all! Drop the 17" model. Too big, it's like carrying around your own tombstone!
While I can buy the idea of a bigger deal iPad 3 in the fall, it doesn't make sense that they would have an event to announce a premium iPad 1 with a three month delay on availability.
I have to think this will be a true iPad 2 with the much rumored upgrades of facetime, thinner body, lighter and faster processor....but even that doesn't seem worthy of a full event. IOS 5 preview speculation seems reasonable.
Agreed. Apple is not going to center an event around an iPad announcement that is merely a spec refresh, so this is going to be a real-deal, flatter, faster, lighter FaceTime-enabled iPad 2.
I would be surprised to see Apple do another major iPad update in September, but I could see a smaller iPad -- 5- or 6-inch with a retina display -- with a big holiday marketing push as the perfect-sized device for gamers.
March 2 prediction:
* MacBook Pro rehash/overview -- focus on start-up time and Thunderbolt.
* Short Lion preview -- maybe just 1 or 2 very iOS-y features.
* iTunes/Mobile Me update -- some new cloud feature and hinting at a bigger announcement later. (Or not.)
* iPad content -- announcing several newspaper and magazine titles going to subscriptions.
Maybe they are introducing LightPeak now so in a year they can remove the overly large parts that will interfere with their design when they remove the optical drive and shrink the case thickness considerably. By then we should have plenty of accessories for LightPeak-based ports.
I'm totally on the wrong refresh cycle. I'm in desperate need of a new machine. This update will be a huge jump in specs for me with SSD, 8GB RAM, etc., but it's way more fun to get the 'all-new' designs!
\
Dude, I'm in the same boat. I'm going from 4GB to 8GB RAM, 15" to 17", HDD to SSD (maybe), core 2 duo to core i, maxed out every other way. I need to upgrade, two years is long enough. But look, it's all about common multiples, I'm going to start updating every two years, if Apple does this revamping every 3 years, you'll eventually be right on money (for one iteration at least). The only way would be to get a medium level machine and upgrade every year, or still get the highest and upgrade every three years.
Agreed. Apple is not going to center an event around an iPad announcement that is merely a spec refresh, so this is going to be a real-deal, flatter, faster, lighter FaceTime-enabled iPad 2.
I would be surprised to see Apple do another major iPad update in September, but I could see a smaller iPad -- 5- or 6-inch with a retina display -- with a big holiday marketing push as the perfect-sized device for gamers.
March 2 prediction:
* MacBook Pro rehash/overview -- focus on start-up time and Thunderbolt.
* Short Lion preview -- maybe just 1 or 2 very iOS-y features.
* iTunes/Mobile Me update -- some new cloud feature and hinting at a bigger announcement later. (Or not.)
* iPad content -- announcing several newspaper and magazine titles going to subscriptions.
* iPad 2.
That all sounds reasonable to me.
I do think that moving the iPad inline with the iTunes/iPod event each Autumn makes some sense, but it?s tricky. Apple will have to force a lot of things to make that viable, like actually getting a much better display for that iPad, having it still perform well on the HW with good battery life, and have enough supply to actually meet the demand they are meeting now.
Seems very un-Apple like to release "interim" products used solely as stopgaps until better products roll around.
This to me is Apple feeling threatened by the competition and is now resorting to the same tactics people lambast Apple's competitors for in the first place: releasing crap first, good stuff later. Google is adept at this, releasing perpetually-in-beta products to give them time to create, if ever, version 1.0.
Maybe, just maybe, Apple has a little of its mojo back and will surprise all of us with the iPad 3 specs, delivered before anyone thought possible.
If I were Apple, I'd want to avoid the rage-induced upgrade psychosis and announce the iPad 2 (with retina display) to ship in X months. Then a price reduction on current models will keep everything flowing.
That's an aggressive prediction. More down to earth, I think we are going to get the confusing 1.5 and then september v2 introductions.
Comments
My guess is that it will be a silent refresh, just a web store update and a press release.
Doing a media event for a slight incremental update does not make any sense. It devalues the whole idea/importance of a media event.
Thanks for the response. I would totally agree, but what about the introduction of Thunderbolt? An entirely new protocol? It seems to me that that warrants a small media event. The only issue is, why have invitations not been sent out? I was looking for the history of Apple's events (i.e. which releases warranted a media event, how long was the lapse between invitations and the event etc.) but couldn't find anything? Is there any precedence for something like this? I'm not talking about a WWDC size event, just the small room that I think Apple has announced single product lines or iPhone software in.
As for the iPad, I won't buy one until they increase the pixel resolution.
So this interim iPad would only come in lighter, with a better display, albeit not retina-like, more RAM, a more powerful CPU and a better graphics engine.
As stopgaps go, sounds rather decent. Really, though, why would Apple bother to release an update on such a product in 2011. All Apple would have to do is up the RAM to 32 gigs on the entry model and the competition would be a step behind for the rest of the year.
Even if Apple has a retina-like display in the pipeline, it seems rather logical that this would be an upgrade that would more likely see the light of day in 2012 if not later. Certainly if the costs associated with such a display are prohibitive in March, what could possibly happen by later this year to dramatically alter that.
Here's something else to consider. If this unfolds as reported by this site, tomorrow Apple will update their macbook pro line, including the introduction of a significant new technology, and yet Apple does not deem this announcement worthy of a formal media event. Are we led to believe, however, that a minor tweaking of the iPad would warrant such an event days later. Not a chance. If Apple figures the iPad upgrade it's going to unveil on March 2 warrants a media event, the product to be unveiled will be a significant refresh of the iPad. And forget about Apple announcing the device on March 2 and shipping it months later. Ridiculous. No way that Apple would give the competition months of lead time to respond to the next version of the iPad and it would certainly not be OK with making such an announcement and then compensating by lowering the price of the current version, still soldiering on for a few more months. If you had a hot-selling product would you cut into profit margin by announcing months in advance what the successor would offer. Obviously not.
If the reasoning was that Apple would need to offer something to convince customers to not jump ship in the months leading up to the new product becoming available, surely that would be accomplished just as easily by simply continuing to sell the first-gen iPad with no announcement. Everybody knows in advance that the iPad 2 would be an upgrade on the iPad 1 so leaving it to consumers' imagination what that upgrade could entail, would only serve to entice consumers to wait on an announcement.
Tomorrow the MacBook Pro gets a significant refresh and on March 2, the iPad 2 comes to market. In June we get the new iPhone and in September we'll get the new iPods. Also getting updates sooner than later will be, of course, the iMac and the Mac Mini. There will also be a Sandy Bridge Macbook Air this year. This is the line-up that Apple will take into the Christmas buying season. That's all there is and it should be plenty.
If you're waiting for upgrades on the upgrades in calendar 2011, good luck with that.
If they manage to up the RAM to 32GB I think their competitors will need 5 years.
These iPad rumors are getting really stupid and they don't make any sense. If Apple is not satisfied with iPad 2 before they release it then they will not release it. It is that simple. There is no reason to release a new iPad now and another one in few months.
Let alone call it iPad 1.5 or something stupid like that.
Is not having a Retina Display on the iPad2 a deal breaker for most users? Of course, it would be nice, but the iPads I've seen in the stores looked great.
"Next year is the year when Apple will introduce an all new design for the MacBook Pro product family, which is already under development at Quanta in Taiwan," the report says, reminding readers that Apple likes to overhaul the industrial design of its most popular Macs every 2 to 3 years.
I'm totally on the wrong refresh cycle. I'm in desperate need of a new machine. This update will be a huge jump in specs for me with SSD, 8GB RAM, etc., but it's way more fun to get the 'all-new' designs!
Tomorrow the MacBook Pro gets a significant refresh and on March 2, the iPad 2 comes to market. In June we get the new iPhone and in September we'll get the new iPods. Also getting updates sooner than later will be, of course, the iMac and the Mac Mini. There will also be a Sandy Bridge Macbook Air this year. This is the line-up that Apple will take into the Christmas buying season. That's all there is and it should be plenty.
If you're waiting for upgrades on the upgrades in calendar 2011, good luck with that.
I really think that whatever is announced tomorrow e.g. "Thunderbolt" or something else. It is needed to be in place for the iPad announcement to have maximum impact. I think you get an iMac and Macbook update this week and iPad next. That makes the consumer line complete (just need iPhone 5 and new iPod this year) If there is an september iPad it is a new model (different screen size) and will be an addition to the line and not the next version.
Yes MacBooks will bet redesigned for 2012. it will have been 4 years on the same case design by then so it will be time.
Yep, this is where it's heading! MBA's for all! Drop the 17" model. Too big, it's like carrying around your own tombstone!
While I can buy the idea of a bigger deal iPad 3 in the fall, it doesn't make sense that they would have an event to announce a premium iPad 1 with a three month delay on availability.
I have to think this will be a true iPad 2 with the much rumored upgrades of facetime, thinner body, lighter and faster processor....but even that doesn't seem worthy of a full event. IOS 5 preview speculation seems reasonable.
Agreed. Apple is not going to center an event around an iPad announcement that is merely a spec refresh, so this is going to be a real-deal, flatter, faster, lighter FaceTime-enabled iPad 2.
I would be surprised to see Apple do another major iPad update in September, but I could see a smaller iPad -- 5- or 6-inch with a retina display -- with a big holiday marketing push as the perfect-sized device for gamers.
March 2 prediction:
* MacBook Pro rehash/overview -- focus on start-up time and Thunderbolt.
* Short Lion preview -- maybe just 1 or 2 very iOS-y features.
* iTunes/Mobile Me update -- some new cloud feature and hinting at a bigger announcement later. (Or not.)
* iPad content -- announcing several newspaper and magazine titles going to subscriptions.
* iPad 2.
Maybe they are introducing LightPeak now so in a year they can remove the overly large parts that will interfere with their design when they remove the optical drive and shrink the case thickness considerably. By then we should have plenty of accessories for LightPeak-based ports.
I'm totally on the wrong refresh cycle. I'm in desperate need of a new machine. This update will be a huge jump in specs for me with SSD, 8GB RAM, etc., but it's way more fun to get the 'all-new' designs!
Dude, I'm in the same boat. I'm going from 4GB to 8GB RAM, 15" to 17", HDD to SSD (maybe), core 2 duo to core i, maxed out every other way. I need to upgrade, two years is long enough. But look, it's all about common multiples, I'm going to start updating every two years, if Apple does this revamping every 3 years, you'll eventually be right on money (for one iteration at least). The only way would be to get a medium level machine and upgrade every year, or still get the highest and upgrade every three years.
Agreed. Apple is not going to center an event around an iPad announcement that is merely a spec refresh, so this is going to be a real-deal, flatter, faster, lighter FaceTime-enabled iPad 2.
I would be surprised to see Apple do another major iPad update in September, but I could see a smaller iPad -- 5- or 6-inch with a retina display -- with a big holiday marketing push as the perfect-sized device for gamers.
March 2 prediction:
* MacBook Pro rehash/overview -- focus on start-up time and Thunderbolt.
* Short Lion preview -- maybe just 1 or 2 very iOS-y features.
* iTunes/Mobile Me update -- some new cloud feature and hinting at a bigger announcement later. (Or not.)
* iPad content -- announcing several newspaper and magazine titles going to subscriptions.
* iPad 2.
That all sounds reasonable to me.
I do think that moving the iPad inline with the iTunes/iPod event each Autumn makes some sense, but it?s tricky. Apple will have to force a lot of things to make that viable, like actually getting a much better display for that iPad, having it still perform well on the HW with good battery life, and have enough supply to actually meet the demand they are meeting now.
Will someone tell me when iPad 8 is going to be released?! Christ!
March 24th, 2017.
This to me is Apple feeling threatened by the competition and is now resorting to the same tactics people lambast Apple's competitors for in the first place: releasing crap first, good stuff later. Google is adept at this, releasing perpetually-in-beta products to give them time to create, if ever, version 1.0.
March 24th, 2017.
This had better be right so that I can come back six years from now and have the grandest Internet laugh ever.
If I were Apple, I'd want to avoid the rage-induced upgrade psychosis and announce the iPad 2 (with retina display) to ship in X months. Then a price reduction on current models will keep everything flowing.
That's an aggressive prediction. More down to earth, I think we are going to get the confusing 1.5 and then september v2 introductions.