iPad 3 Announcement 7th March

TheMonkey · Feb 29, 2012, 11:41:06

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1331226

QuoteIn line with expectations, The Loop reports that Apple today sent out invitations for a media event scheduled for next week Wednesday, March 7. The event will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and is scheduled to begin at 10:00 AM Pacific / 1:00 PM Eastern. The tagline on the invitation reads "We have something you really have to see. And touch."

Apple is of course expected to introduce the iPad 3 at the event, with an upgraded Apple TV set-top box also reportedly in the plans. Rumors have also suggested that Apple could show off a new high-definition audio format with "adaptive streaming" that could allow Apple's iCloud and iTunes Match services to send varying qualities of audio files to different devices depending on bandwidth and hardware requirements.

Please take my money now.

Thanks

Rik · Feb 29, 2012, 11:46:14

There goes the bank balance.

TheMonkey · Feb 29, 2012, 12:15:37

Thankfully I have nice relatives who gave me Apple Vouchers for Christmas to offset some of the cost.

I can't keep up with all this tech

Rik · Feb 29, 2012, 12:17:02

I stopped trying a while ago. Still, there should be some good bargains to be had in iPad 2s shortly...

Simon · Feb 29, 2012, 12:18:17

... and even better ones for iPad 1s.

Technical Ben · Feb 29, 2012, 14:44:27

"Today Apple have totally side-swiped everyone's expectations by instead releasing the iPood. A device to help people keep regular..."

TheMonkey · Feb 29, 2012, 15:13:36

Quote from: Technical Ben on Feb 29, 2012, 14:44:27
"Today Apple have totally side-swiped everyone's expectations by instead releasing the iPood. A device to help people keep regular..."

Wow thats pretty neat..........wait second....that didn't happen

Rik · Feb 29, 2012, 16:05:21

Quote from: Technical Ben on Feb 29, 2012, 14:44:27
"Today Apple have totally side-swiped everyone's expectations by instead releasing the iPood. A device to help people keep regular..."

You're a month and a day too early, Ben.

Technical Ben · Feb 29, 2012, 17:30:09

It was a possible future comment.

Rik · Feb 29, 2012, 17:35:06

Glenn · Mar 07, 2012, 18:31:23

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17292424

Steve · Mar 07, 2012, 18:45:59

Graphic display potentially very impressive and you can order today I believe for delivery on the 16th March. Not sure about using it as camera , very odd shape.

http://www.macrumors.com/

2048 x 1536 resolution. Higher than a 1080p display. 3.1 million pixels, 264 pixels per inch, "enough to call it a retina display". iPhone 4 was held at 10 inches, iPad held at 15".
- 44% greater color saturation.
- A5X Processor, quad-core graphics.
- New iSight Camera. 5MP rear camera, backside illuminated sensor on the back, 5-element lens, IR filter, and ISP built into A5X chip. Same design as iPhone 4S. Auto-exposure, auto-focus.
- HD video recording in 1080p.

Apple sold more iPads than any individual PC-maker sold PC's - a revealing fact to me that we are now in the post PC world and Windows 8 will be joining in the fray as well.

Niall · Mar 08, 2012, 16:16:54

No way will I be paying £650 for a tablet. For £200 more I can get a laptop that does far more, with only a slight increase in size & weight. Why in gods name are they not increasing the storage capacity. They'd win over a LOT of people, and for £650 you'd expect much more than 64gb. Looks like I'll be getting that laptop after all, to slot into my new shoulder bag for my camera equipment, etc. Seems that yet again, they've missed the thing that would interest people a lot more, and only released what they should have done last time. Maybe in 10 years time the penny will drop that if you want to use it for media purposes, they'll need to increase storage capacity.

The sad thing, and for me the annoying thing is that people will continue to pay these silly prices to have the trendy product, which will only encourage Apple to do what they want. It's coinciding with people with next to no PC knowledge splashing out on them instead of a PC because it's easier for them to use. That is perfectly sensible, but make them cheaper and increase storage and they'd more than make up the difference in sales. Apple baffle me, they really do.

TheMonkey · Mar 08, 2012, 16:35:29

Quote from: Niall on Mar 08, 2012, 16:16:54
No way will I be paying £650 for a tablet. For £200 more I can get a laptop that does far more, with only a slight increase in size & weight. Why in gods name are they not increasing the storage capacity. They'd win over a LOT of people, and for £650 you'd expect much more than 64gb. Looks like I'll be getting that laptop after all, to slot into my new shoulder bag for my camera equipment, etc. Seems that yet again, they've missed the thing that would interest people a lot more, and only released what they should have done last time. Maybe in 10 years time the penny will drop that if you want to use it for media purposes, they'll need to increase storage capacity.

The sad thing, and for me the annoying thing is that people will continue to pay these silly prices to have the trendy product, which will only encourage Apple to do what they want. It's coinciding with people with next to no PC knowledge splashing out on them instead of a PC because it's easier for them to use. That is perfectly sensible, but make them cheaper and increase storage and they'd more than make up the difference in sales. Apple baffle me, they really do.

Simple answers to you post..

a) iPad starts at £399. Thats pretty good for a tablet of its quality. Apple don't make cheap quality products. Leave that to the competitors who have nothing else to offer.

b) Its not a laptop. Apple are pushing their cloud service so the amount data needed to be stored on it isn't that great.

The way you are going on its as if Apple are failing as a company.

Simon · Mar 08, 2012, 16:37:28

As you say, Niall, with Apple's sales figures and profits as they are, they have absolutely no reason to change.

zappaDPJ · Mar 08, 2012, 16:51:26

I would very much like one, the display alone makes it extremely enticing. All the reviews I've read so far describe the display quality as stunning. Personally I doubt I'd need anything more than the bottom end model which doesn't seem too pricey at £399. I will however probably hold fire as I'd like to see what Windows 8 based devices have to offer first and I'd guess they are not likely to see the light of day until the end of the year.

Technical Ben · Mar 08, 2012, 17:49:01

Quote from: Simon on Mar 08, 2012, 16:37:28
As you say, Niall, with Apple's sales figures and profits as they are, they have absolutely no reason to change.

A sale a good product dose not make...

As the Yoda would say. The Empire was massively "successful" with Darth Vader in charge, even though he was part of the Dark Side.

I don't have anything against it. But I can understand, one persons chalk, is another's cheese. But I do find it strange when must people prefer to each chalk (see blockbuster figures for seriously poor writing in films, just because they have explosions)...

I think the display sounds amazing. But for that price, I'd expect it in a laptop. But if they were charging close to Ipad 1/2 prices, I'd not see any difficulty for them. At such a high price, people may shy away.

Niall · Mar 08, 2012, 19:18:32

Quote from: TheMonkey on Mar 08, 2012, 16:35:29
Simple answers to you post..

a) iPad starts at £399. Thats pretty good for a tablet of its quality. Apple don't make cheap quality products. Leave that to the competitors who have nothing else to offer.

b) Its not a laptop. Apple are pushing their cloud service so the amount data needed to be stored on it isn't that great.

The way you are going on its as if Apple are failing as a company.

You might want to re-read my post then if you think I said that.

My point was clear. They're keeping the storage low, and if I was to use one, I'd want to have onboard storage, not swap it about constantly via cloud services, so it would need to be at a very minimum 128gb and even then I'd have to think about it. 256gb is more the norm on a PC these days, and I'm only talking media storage. Just music alone, I'd almost have filled the top end ipad, which is no use if you want anything else on there. Cloud storage is good for nothing if you have no wifi or 3/4g connection in your area. Even in my town centre there are more dead zones than there is coverage.

I fully expect more Apple fans to round on this comment, as per usual, but my point is valid. Keep the price high, and include reasonable storage, or lower the price. There's such a fanboy hype about Apple thanks to their advertising over the last decade that they refuse to accept the fact that the products could and should have included things on previous versions, then a year later they add a few of those features, and the fans shout from the hill tops about how good it is, when the technology was available previously (and probably would have been cheaper to implement too, due to the economy) and could have been done then. Still we have key things that are the most basic of needs missing, and when they address that, if they do, the fans once again will be raving about how good Apple is. Get it right the first time and you'll get much higher sales, and have a wider range of customer base to work with for future products.

Basically to me it seems they just rely on fanboyism and brand loyalty to sell things currently, which will sell them a great amount of product, but not the quality product they could easily release. I just find it baffling and annoying, as do a lot of other people.

Steve · Mar 08, 2012, 19:42:08

There's no denying that the iPad has been a huge success in terms of number of units sold, last quarter no single PC manufacturer beat it. This cannot be explained by fanboyism and brand loyalty, this device has brought new customers to Apple. I agree Niall this device is not for everyone as individual requirements differ and personally having invested in an iPad some 20 months ago I'm not ready to upgrade,for me personally it doesn't make economic sense.

I have an original ATV which we do use, it's now approaching 3 years old and to upgrade that makes sense to me- I'll get a full screen iPad with 1080p video.

I believe the competition to the iPad will come from Windows 8 tablets later this year certainly the Samsung units are not selling that well.

Technical Ben · Mar 08, 2012, 20:36:52

Sadly, I'll say MS should have stuck to what they are good at. Windows 8 could be a great tablet OS. But as a pc OS, it's dire (GUI that is, backend seems better than even Win7).
If they get it running fast, an arm version of Windows Mobile 8 might give Apple a competitor to play with.

Steve · Mar 08, 2012, 21:52:43

I think we are seeing the death throes of the large form factor PC , Windows 8 as I understand it the desktop experience ain't going to change much and looking at the decline in desktop PC sales one can understand why. Windows 8 from the mobile point of view is a new OS and MS has been working on it for some time , if they get it right I think Android will be the loser and iOS will be looking nervously over it's shoulder. Don't forget a Windows 8 tablet will still be a PC.

Sadly for a lot of us in the UK we're not going to see the full benefits of these new form factors, tablets and ultra books,as for both iOS and Windows 8 these are portable devices that rely on WiFi,3G and 4G for full functionality. It always amazes when I go abroad in Europe often to some remote locations that it's unusual not to have a 3G signal yet in my back garden 9 miles away from an area of high population density I can't. This lack of foresight and investment makes a lot us unable to imagine anything worthy beyond the desktop/large format laptop attached to a fixed broadband connection

I see it's taken nearly a whole day for the iPad order date to slip from the 16th in the UK.

lozcart · Mar 08, 2012, 22:13:30

The Apple Store was down until 12.10am this morning Steve so no orders could be placed, I know from experience, I ordered my 32gb wifi model at 12.30am after refreshing the page many times

Steve · Mar 08, 2012, 22:17:01

I did think they may have been snapped up sooner obviously this depends on available stock, I decided to upgrade the ATV now whether that was ever available from the 16th in the UK I don't know but delivery is currently 1-2 weeks.

lozcart · Mar 08, 2012, 22:23:30

I think Tim Cook is reported as a expert of inventory and stock control so I wonder if he is having more say now Steve has passed on and so there is more avaliable stock at the launch of a new product.

zappaDPJ · Mar 08, 2012, 22:58:54

Quote from: Steve on Mar 08, 2012, 19:42:08
There's no denying that the iPad has been a huge success in terms of number of units sold, last quarter no single PC manufacturer beat it.

Apple accounted for 40 million of 60 million tablet PC shipments last year. If what I'm seeing on a couple of my forums is typical, demand for the iPad 3 is going to be phenomenal.