Is My New iPad About to Become Obsolete?
For all of Apple’s famous unpredictability (unlike some of its competitors, the company refuses to announce what it is planning to announce before it announces it), its hardware releases have been disarmingly regular. The iPhone, for instance, first went on sale in June 2007. Apple released subsequent models in July 2008, June 2009 and June 2010. September is the season of iPod Nano and iPod Touch updates. As for the iPad, the first version went on sale on April 3, 2010. The iPad 2 followed 49 weeks later. As we approach March 2011, the question on my mind—and I’m willing to bet on the minds of lots of other extraordinarily good boys and girls this year—is whether the iPad 3 is mere weeks away. If so, I’d like to return mine and get the new model when it comes out. If not, I’ll keep what I have.
Rumors have been abundant, as is usual with Apple. In December the Taiwanese technology Web site Digitimes predicted that Apple would introduce a new iPad at the MacWorld Expo in late January. (Digitimes leans heavily on orders placed with Asian component suppliers for its predictions.) Yet that report has since been widely criticized, with many commentators noting that Apple hasn’t attended MacWorld since 2009.