We’re just 10 days into 2011 and the iPad 2 rumour mill is still going strong, so not to be outdone, we thought we would add our two pennies worth.
Before Christmas we posted a story (Apple to ship ipad 2 for Feb 2011) from Digitimes saying that the iPad manufacturer Foxconn was ramping up to ship a new iPad for the start of February, and now blogger Kevin Rose on his foundation newsletter has posted 1 February as a potential date for the announcement of the iPad 2.
On his foundat.io/n blog Rose said
“I have it on good authority that Apple will be announcing the iPad 2 in the next “3-4 weeks”, possibly Tuesday February 1st. The iPad 2 will feature a retina display and front/back cameras. “
Additionally we also thought that the pre-Christmas price drop (Cheap iPads on Orange and T-Mobile) on the Apple iPad from Orange, T-Mobile and Three was the precursor to the launch of a new iPad in early 2011.
The timescale of February 1 fits in with Apple’s traditional new product development cycle. The iPhone cycle has been almost exactly one year from model to model, and it’s the same for their other devices, so it would be unlikely that the iPad would buck that trend.
The iPad was announced on January 27, 2010, by Steve Jobs at an Apple press conference at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco and the first models were delivered on April 3 of 2010. So it seems likely that the February 1 announcement will be just that, and that the first iPad 2 models will hit the streets in late March or early April 2011.
The rumour mill was further stoked up as electronics accessory manufacturer Dexim briefly displayed a case designed for a notional iPad 2 at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show last week.
As Rose warns if you are thinking of buying an iPad now then it might be wise to wait until 1 February before you make your final decision.
Rose has added an update to his site saying that after talking to another source at Apple he believes the display will be a “higher dpi”, but not technically a retina display.
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