Apple's iPad 3 will resemble its predecessors with regard to external design, suggests a new report.
Apples iPad 3
will resemble its predecessors, right down to the circular home button and a
camera hole in the top bezel.
That
information comes from Chinese Website
Sina
Weibo, which offered up a purported image of the iPad 3s front assembly.
That image found its way onto Apple-centric blog
MacRumors Feb. 21.
The part
appears nearly identical to that of the iPad 2, the blog reported, with the
major distinguishing feature being a relatively long ribbon cable extending up
the side of the display as opposed to a shorter cable with a sideways
orientation seen in the iPad 2.
With pundits
and tech media widely expecting Apple to unveil the iPad 3 during the first
week of March, the rumor mill surrounding the next-generation tablet has kicked
into full gear. Among the predicted features: a higher-resolution screen and
more powerful processor and camera. On Feb. 9,
AllThingsD reported that the iPad 3s screen
would feature 2,048 by 1,536 resolution, along with an improved graphics
processing unit paired to a faster chip.
As a whole,
the iPad franchise enters 2012 in a particularly strong market position.
Throughout 2011, other tablets have plunged into the tablet arena with huge
advertising budgets and the stated aim of becoming an iPad killer, only to
find apathetic customers and a general lack of buzz.
Our checks
indicate modest sales of most competing tablet offerings, including the
Motorola Xyboard, RIM PlayBook, HTC View 4G, Samsung Galaxy tab and several
other Android based devices, T. Michael Walkley, an analyst with Canaccord
Genuity, wrote in a Jan. 24 research note. Also consistent with our checks,
the Amazon Kindle Fire did not adversely impact iPad sales but more likely had
a greater impact on e-reader sales.
Apples next
big tablet challenge might come in late 2012, when it will face Windows 8 on
Microsoft and its manufacturing partners. Whatever features are included with
the iPad 3, they will need to prove capable of beating back that challenge, in
addition to keeping Android at bay.
Apple is also
wrestling with some controversy over the iPads manufacture. In late January,
The New York Times published a series of
reports about working conditions at Foxconn, which builds Apples bestselling
products. The workers assembling iPhones, iPads and other devices often labor in
harsh conditions, read the papers Jan. 25 piece, which partly drew its
information from unnamed factory employees. Problems are as varied as onerous
work environments and serioussometimes deadlysafety problems.
Those reports
drew a fair amount of negative attention to Apple. In January, it became the
first technology company admitted to the Fair Labor Association, and its
suppliers apparently opted to cooperate fully with a special voluntary audit
by the organization. We believe that workers everywhere have the right to a
safe and fair work environment, Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote in a
Feb. 13 statement.
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