Apple iPad 3 Coming Next Year: Report

By Darrell Etherington, GigaOM

 

Those hoping for Apple(AAPL) iPad lightning to strike twice this year might be disappointed by a new report out Friday. Taiwan Economic News, citing sources within the chip-making industry, says the A6 processor, successor to the A5 and cited as the central component for a new, more powerful iPad, won't be ready for public consumption until the second quarter of next year at the earliest.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) is the company that will be supplying the A6 to Apple, according to the report. Reuters reported last month that the chipmaker was getting underway with trial production, but this latest report seems to suggest that trial production hadn't yet begun in earnest until now.

The current A5 chip that powers the iPad 2, and is rumored to power the upcoming iPhone 5, is supplied by Samsung, but reports have long suggested that Apple was considering moving their chip production to TSMC, which is the world's largest semiconductor foundry as measured by market share.

Apple is also thought to be looking to move some of its business away from Samsung, since the two companies are involved in a complicated and volatile legal battle in various courts worldwide.

The A6, based on the ARM(ARMH) chip architecture, will use TSMC's new 28-nanometer process, along with 3D stacking technologies. That will make for an extremely low-powered chip that's also capable of blowing away the A4 and A5 in terms of processing ability, since those designs both use layered instead of 3D designs.

The 3D stacking tech will allow layers to be integrated vertically and horizontally into one single circuit. Computerworld's Jonny Evans suggested in July that such a design could make for a processor powerful enough, in theory, to replace Intel(INTC) chips in future MacBook Airs, so they should extend the iPad's capabilities considerably.

Taiwan Economic News says TSMC and Apple had discussed working together on past chips, but the chipmaker didn't have the spare production capacity to take on the iPad maker as a customer. Owing to a downturn in the industry this year, the publication says TSMC now has room to fill Apple's orders.

While it may be disappointing to some that it's looking less likely we'll see an iPad 3 this year, an iPad 2 and an iPad 3 released so close together isn't a smart play for Apple anyway, as GigaOM noted earlier this year. The iPad continues to dominate the tablet space, and Apple is currently doing a good job of keeping its competition from even being able to sell their products.

Even if we won't get to see a new iPad product before 2012, the news that TSMC is getting underway with its chip-making plans ahead of ramping up for full production in the first quarter is still an exciting prospect for fans eager to see what's coming next from Apple.

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Report: iPhone 5 Coming in September, iPad 3 in the Works

Apple's next-generation iPhone will debut its next mobile operating system, iOS 5, boast the iPad 2's powerful A5 processor, come with an 8-megapixel camera, and launch in September, alleged sources told Bloomberg on Wednesday.

At the same time Bloomberg said Apple is testing a third-generation iPad with higher resolution than the iPad 2, something closer to the pixel density on the iPhone 4's 3.5-inch, 960x640 screen. It didn't mention timing, but earlier this month research firm CLSA told the Wall Street Journal that the "iPad 3" might launch just before Christmas.

Apple is also developing a smaller, cheaper version of the iPhone 4 for emerging markets, Bloomberg reported.

Bloomberg's Wednesday report echoes a few enduring rumors about Apple's unannounced mobile devices. In January AppleInsider first reported sources saying the "iPhone 5" will host an A5 processor. Back in February Apple COO Tim Cook had publicly hinted at a cheaper iPhone for emerging markets.

Meanwhile as reported last week, iOS 5 will supposedly support full 1080p video, which would work well with the alleged 8-megapixel feature Sony CEO Howard Stringer hinted at back in April.

On Tuesday, Boy Genius Report's Jonathan Geller gave us our Apple rumor of the day. He said he'd "confirmed" with alleged sources that the next iPhone will be a complete version upgrade rather than a minor update. Geller also reported that the next iPhone will have a "radical" new shape, perhaps something like the teardrop-shaped profile pitched by This Is My Next last April. With less certainty, Geller's sources guessed that Apple would make the announcement in August or at its annual iTunes conference in September.

Meanwhile last Thursday, AppleInsider reported that Apple was withholding the next iPhone and iPod Touch until it finalized a bundled version of iOS 5 and iCloud.

As far as timing of the next iPhone's launch, last week Apple began selling an unlocked, unsubsidized iPhone 4, immediately fueling speculation that Apple was purposely creating a high-cost barrier on the year-old iPhone 4 so people would wait and eventually purchase a subsidized fifth-generation iPhone this fall.

How much can you trust a Bloomberg-originated iPhone rumor? For what it's worth, in June 2010 it was spot-on when it re-iterated earlier rumors about the Verizon iPhone launching in January 2011.

For a roundup of the biggest iPhone 5 rumors from the first half of the year, check out 8 Likely iPhone 5 Rumors, and 2 Wild Ones.

For more from Sara, follow her on Twitter @sarapyin.

For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.

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Research Firm Says Apple iPad 3 Coming This Christmas

Good Apple fanboys and fangirls just might have an iPad 3 waiting for them under the tree this Christmas. Research firm CLSA claims Apple will unveil its third-gen tablet just in time for the peak holiday shopping season.

"While most vendors appear fixated on matching the specs and features of iPad 2, our checks suggest Apple will release iPad 3 in time for the holiday season, sporting a better display and LTE capabilities," the firm said. CLSA also predicted that the iPhone 5 will come LTE-ready.

Rumors that Apple will release a second iPad in 2011 have cropped up periodically. However, Apple generally sticks to an annual product update cycle, which would mean the iPad 3 probably won't appear until spring 2012. There has been buzz that Apple could break this habit with the iPhone 5; there are unconfirmed reports that say Apple won't debut the smartphone until this fall at the earliest. Earlier versions of the iPhone have been unveiled at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference. WWDC 2011 kicks off on Monday in Cupertino and Apple has announced it will show off iCloud, Mac OS X Lioni, and iOS 5, but it has made no mention of a new iPhone.

iPad 3 speculation started even before Apple launched the iPad 2. The most recent reports suggest that it's possible preliminary production on the iPad 3 has already begun, with Taiwanese iPad component makers allegedly in the process of certifying their parts with Apple.

Recently there has been a fair amount of chatter that indicates the iPad 3 will get an upgraded display. DigiTimes has claimed that the iPad 3 would get a brighter, higher-resolution Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode (AMOLED) display. A Korean newspaper corroborated that rumor when it said Apple and Samsung were in talks to bring Samsung's AMOLED technology to the iPad 3. But considering Apple and Samsung are currently in a legal battle, duking it out over patent and copyright infringement, this rumor might be false.

Digitimes has reported that the iPad 3 won't launch until 2012. Apple could not be reached for comment.

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iPad 2 Coming to 12 More Countries This Week

Apple's iPad 2 arrived in Japan Thursday, and the company has announced that the tablet will be in 11 more countries by Friday. iPad 2 will be available at Apple retail stores and select Apple authorized resellers at 9 a.m. local time, as well as the Apple online store starting at 1 a.m. Apple's suggested price for the Wi-Fi only iPad 2 is $499 for the 16 GB model, $599 for the 32 GB model and $699 for the 64 GB model. The recommended price for the 3G plus Wi-Fi version is $629 for the 16 GB model, $729 for the 32 GB model and $829 for the 64 GB model.

[More from Mashable: Top Tech Entrepreneurs Share Their iTunes Playlists]

The countries receiving the device on Friday are: Hong Kong, India, Israel, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey and the U.A.E.

Furthermore, the iPad 2 with Wi-Fi will be available in China starting Friday, May 6, and Apple will announce further international availability at a later date. Two weeks after the March 11 U.S. release of the iPad 2, Apple released the device in 25 additional countries.

[More from Mashable: Could Apple Be Launching a Cloud-Based Music Service Called iCloud?]

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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