According to Taiwanese rumor site DigiTimes, who has a track record that’s square in the middle of the “it could be bullshit, it could be true” barometer of believability, Apple had hopes of launching a third generation iPad this fall, and shipping between 6.5 million and 8 million units by the end of this calendar year, but they had to scrap said plans because they’re finding it difficult to secure availability of LCD panels. Right now, the only manufacturer who can reliably make the 9.7 inch 2,048 x 1,536 pixel “retina display” that many are assuming will be the highlight feature of the iPad 3, is Sharp. Both Samsung and LG have yet to reach a satisfactory level of yields on such advanced displays, but they’re obviously working on it. Considering we always doubted that Apple would release their next iPad barely 6 months after introducing the current model, this news doesn’t really surprise us.
But what about the other guys? Considering how poorly Android tablets have been selling, what’s to stop them from buying up all the available high resolution panels they can and then shoving them on a tablet running Google’s next version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich? Earlier this summer we heard rumors of just such a device, made by Motorola, that’s supposed to have a 10 inch 2048 x 1536 pixel panel. The ultra high resolution tablet was said to hit the market by the end of this year or early next year, which makes us think that if we don’t hear about it by November, we’ll likely see it at the Consumer Electronics Show in early January.
For those who have yet to jump on the tablet bandwagon, are high resolution panels going to tempt you to finally pick one up? This writer is foaming at the mouth at the thought of how lovely a retina display packing iPad, combined with Newsstand in iOS 5, would make his long rocking chair sessions all the more enjoyable.