iPad (4th gen) Hands On

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• tipoo - Tuesday, October 23, 2012 - link

  I wonder if this will be a trend with Apple, before people could expect to feel bummed once a year with each new device, now this is only half a year, I wonder which rate they will keep going forward.
  
  Also I bet this is why they didn't call the last iPad the iPad 3, since this is such an incremental update it's all just "the new iPad" to consumers.

• amdwilliam1985 - Tuesday, October 23, 2012 - link

  that last generation was the new iPad, this is the newer iPad.
  No confusion at all.

• tayb - Tuesday, October 23, 2012 - link

  It seems to me that they're switching to their Mac naming convention. They're just going to call these devices "iPad" instead of numbering them. They don't number the Macbook line they just released updates. It wouldn't be confusing if Apple didn't call the second iPad "iPad 2." Now it IS confusing.

• amdwilliam1985 - Tuesday, October 23, 2012 - link

  I think it would work best if they go with year.
  But it won't work in this case, because you'll get 2 "iPad 2012" iPads. But normally, it'll work, because they usually do the annual release cycle.
  I think it just makes sense with year, precise and clear.
  
  The same thing goes for iPhone.
  Now we have the 6th iPhone name iPhone 5.
  They could've gone with iPhone 2012.

• rs2 - Tuesday, October 23, 2012 - link

  You forgot the /sarcasm tag.

• Formul - Tuesday, October 23, 2012 - link

  This is a really iterative upgrade and as a 3rd gen iPad user I don't feel bummed at all .. just like I don't feel bummed by the new Air compared to my last year one.
  
  To me this early release of 4th gen indicates that we may se a major overhaul of the iPad in the spring.

• amdwilliam1985 - Tuesday, October 23, 2012 - link

  Yep, 2 releases a year. sounds great.

• tim851 - Thursday, October 25, 2012 - link

  I don't think so.
  
  The A6 was probably supposed to go into the 3rd gen iPad in the first place. Being Apple's first self-designed SoC, it took a little longer. They had to release a Retina iPad though, because the screens were probably being manufactured already and the stock market expected it. So they went the conservative route of doubling the GPU-cores in the A5 to make sure graphics performance wouldn't suck and called it a day.
  
  Now that the A6 is ready in volume, they just shoved it in. That's why they released it now. It probably helps to free up production lines for A5s to go into the Mini. And it puts them in a much more comfortable position against the upcoming onslaught of Win8 and Android tablets.
  
  I doubt that it will be a regular thing for Apple though, to release to iterations of a product per year.

• augiem - Thursday, October 25, 2012 - link

  I think the real reason for the iPad 4 was the Lightning connector. They can't very well sell the iPhone 5, iPad mini, new iPods all with the new dock connector and not update the iPad, one of their flagships. It's not just being OCD, its confusing for end users and troublesome for manufacturers.

• aliasfox - Tuesday, October 23, 2012 - link

  People were bummed when they had to wait 16 months for the iPhone 4s
  
  People are bummed that they only waited 7 months for the iPad 4th gen
  
  People wail on Apple for not having more frequent product announcements to keep up with the competition
  
  People wail on Apple for having too frequent update cycles, thus devaluing the equipment they just bought
  
  I do think this is perhaps a bit too incremental for many people to care though - very few people were complaining that the iPad3 was too slow - overall, it stacked up reasonably well even against Tegra3 based competition. I was hoping that Sharp would've had enough yield for its IGZO displays, but judging by the fact that it wasn't mentioned and that the thickness and weight are the same, it seems like they aren't.
  
  Sharp IGZO was supposed to alleviate the lower light transmission issue that hiDPI displays have - with better light transmission, Apple could've reduced the backlighting and shrunk the battery, bringing the iPad back to iPad2 size and weight.