As if it wasn’t painful enough that Tim Cook suggested that Apple wouldn’t release any new products until the fall, a taunting report from Taiwanese news blog DigiTimes says that Apple won’t vamp up production for the next-generation iPad 5 and iPad Mini 2 until around July-August and September-November, respectfully.
The report fails to mention whether the two tablets will make an appearance at next week’s WWDC showcase in San Francisco, which to me means ‘no news is good news’ in that next-generation versions for both will likely be debuted. In fact, volume production for both in the later part of the summer and early fall would put both gadgets on track for a holiday-season consumer availability, a range that pretty much all electronics producers shoot for with their flagship products.
The report noted, according to inside supply chain sources,
“With the addition of the next-generation iPad, Apple’s 9.7-inch iPad shipments are expected to total at around eight million units in the third quarter and will have a chance to rise further in the fourth due to seasonality….Market watchers originally estimated Apple’s tablet shipments to reach 80-100 million units in 2013 with iPad mini accounting for 35% of the volume and 9.7-inch iPads 65%. However, with iPad mini’s volume production delayed to the fourth quarter, total iPad shipments for 2013 may be lower.”
The report even describes the bare bones of how the next-gen iPad will look, “the 9.7-inch iPad is expected to adopt a thin-film-type touch panel solution to reduce its weight by 20-30% and will adopt a slim bezel design to increase the display area.” Many sources are pegging the new iPad to take design cues from the iPad mini, which is also thought to be outfitted with a new Retina display.
Besides basic sizing specs, very little has been leaked about both the new iPad and iPad mini, but that’s the way Apple likes it. Gossip with continue to spew until the keynote session of the WWDC on June 10 but as for what’s certain, we won’t know until then. Stay tuned to BostInno for the latest details though, as we’ll be scouring the internet for the most accurate sources of the latest information.
In the meantime, let’s hear from both the Apple lovers and haters out there. What are you looking forward to most from WWDC and what do you think will be glaringly absent? Will Apple unveil a next-generation iPhone and low-cost iPhone along with iOS 7?
