Is Apple iPad 3 coming out in early 2012?

According to a Citi analyst, Apple’s next-generation iPad -- likely called an iPad 3, is expected to come out in early 2012. If recent analysis about Apple's imminent tablet plans are true, the third-generation iPad will arrive sometime between February and April 2012. In a research note sent last Thursday, Richard Gardner said "several sources" indicated that Apple would launch its next-generation iOS tablet as much as a month earlier than it released the iPad 2 in 2011.

Such a device would be similar to the iPad 2, but include Apple's high-resolution retina display technology found on the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S by doubling the iPad 3's screen resolution, said analyst Richard Gardner in a research note. The analyst also said that "there do not appear to be any significant technical hurdles remaining" to prevent the launch of a high-resolution iPad, which contradicts previous reports that fitting such a dense screen into an Apple tablet was one of the reasons Apple iPad 2 maintained the 1024 x 768 resolution of the first iPad. Both the first iPad and iPad 2 displays have a pixel density of 132 pixels per inch.

It’s reported that another feature of the next-generation iPad will have the same screen size but will be a bit thicker than the iPad 2, in order to support hardware that would increase the display resolution from 1,024-by-768 pixels to 2,048-by-1,536. iLounge's best source thinks that the iPad 3 will be 0.7 mm thicker, and trade magazine Digitimes has reported that Apple is at least considering a thicker unit in order to accommodate the sensors necessary for the better, so-called Retina Display (so dubbed because, according to Apple, the human eye cannot make out the individual pixels on the screen). If the iPad 3 does come out with a thicker body, it will join in on the great American tradition of emerging from the wintertime fatter than before.

Production of the new iPads is expected to reach 9.5-9.8 million units in the first quarter of 2012. Sales of iPad products totaled 25.06 million in the first three quarters of 2011 and are likely to reach 40 million units for all of 2011, the sources estimated. However, the new Android tablets like the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime look to be much better direct competition for the iOS-based iPad than the first generation of tablets based on Google's mobile operating system. Cheaper, smaller device like Amazon's Kindle Fire, Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet, and even a sub-$100 tablet using a MIPS-based chip are starting to appear.

Apple could head off competition from similarly priced Android tablets at the pass by getting its latest, greatest tablet technology out a bit sooner than expected. That would also have the effect of reducing prices for older versions of the iPad, which would encourage consumers attracted to the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet to instead climb aboard the iOS platform at a discount.

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