Apple had product success in the past one after the other with iPhone 4S being the latest one. After iPhone 4S, it is high time for Apple to start some work on iPad 3.
According to Susquehanna Financial analyst Jeff Fidacaro, Apple is headed for the production of third gen tablets. According to Fidacaro, there was increase in iPad orders particularly during the fourth quarter to be somewhere between 12 to 14 million, which was greater than 11 to 13 millions. Apple is starting the work for the production of iPad 3. It means that Apple is working on three versions of the tablet at the same time. It is not only difficult to manage three versions of the same product but also to deliver on the customer expectations on each of the version of the product.
Fidacaro said that, “Since our last month supply chain checks, we are now seeing 600,000 to one million iPad 3 builds showing up on the plan for the fourth quarter calendar 2011”, “Our previous estimate did not include any iPad 3s.”
Apple would most probably be launching iPad 3 somewhere during the starting of 2012. Many people are expecting the launch of iPad 3 to be during March, 2012. March of next year could well be the launch date for iPad 3 as iPad 2 was put up for sale during March 2011 of this year.
There are other rumors as well running in the market. Many people are of the opinion that this time Apple would be launching a cheaper version of iPad just to compete effectively with Amazon’s Kindle Fire which is priced at US $199. Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White had heard many murmurings of “iPad mini. But mini refers to a lower price rather than a smaller form factor,” he said.
The cheaper version of iPad would most probably be priced at “mid-to-high $200 range”. According to White, this rumored lower price version of iPad would come in addition to iPad 3. Meaning that during the beginning of 2012, Apple would be launching both this devices – iPad 3 and the lower price version of iPad.
We are waiting patiently as you all are to get a glimpse of iPad 3. Let’s just wait until it is definitely round the corner.