My Next-Gen iPad Predictions


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I'm starting to get excited for the next-generation of iPad's, so I thought it might be fun to throw my own personal prediction out there, and just in general discuss what people expect or might be interested in picking up. I do think the rumored October 15th launch is right-on-the-money, with availability starting the following week's Friday. And here is what I think Apple will show off:

 

iPad mini with Retina Display

 - 7.9", 2048x1536 IPS-IGZO LED-LCD

 - Apple A7 SoC Processor

 - Apple M7 Co-Processor

 - 1GB LPDDR3 Memory

 - FaceTime HD camera from iPhone 5S

 - 5MP back-facing camera, but with same improvements from iPhone 5S carried over.

 - Touch ID

 - Same design as current iPad mini, but in matching colors of iPhone 5S: space grey, gold and silver.

 - $329 for 16GB, $429 for 32GB, $529 for 64GB

 

The new iPad (aka iPad 5)

 - 9.7", 2048x1536 IPS-IGZO LED-LCD

 - Apple A7X SoC Processor

 - Apple M7 Co-Processor

 - 2GB LPDDR3

 - FaceTime HD camera from iPhone 5S

 - 5MP back-facing camera, but with same improvements from iPhone 5S carried over.

 - Touch ID

 - Same design as iPad mini; dramatically thinner, lighter, and less bezel all-around. Matching colors of iPhone 5S: space grey, gold and silver.

 - $499 for 32GB, $599 for 64GB, $799 for 128GB

 

iPad Mini 2 Performance: I think the iPad mini will go Retina Display, despite some conflicting rumors. I also think it will ship with the exact same A7 as the current iPhone 5S. Why? The A7 provides the same (actually, a bit more) graphics performance as the A6X in the iPad 4. So iPad mini, since it would now have the same display resolution, would perform the same as current iPad 4 in GPU speed. CPU speed would of course be doubled, in addition to the 64-bit ARMv8 compatibility. 1GB would also match iPad 4/iPhone 5S, so I think that is fine. The combination of a IGZO display, coupled with further optimizations the SoC and backlighting, should result in the same battery life as the current iPad mini. And all for the same price.

 

iPad 5 Performance: There was a rumor that both of the next iPads would come with an A7X. I don't think so. I think Apple needs at least one thing to make the full-size iPad more attractive, other than just its increased screen size. After all, the iPad 5 makes Apple more money (the screen maybe costs an extra $10 over the iPad mini, but it starts at a full $170 higher price tag) so the more people they convince to "step-up" to the full-size model, the better their profits are. I think the iPad 5 will come with an even more powerful A7X, with double the graphics performance of the A7 (and therefore, A6X from iPad 4). It will also be the first Apple iOS device with 2GB of memory, further appealing to the "tech" crowd. CPU performance will be modestly bumped up, from 1.3GHz dual-core to 1.4GHz dual-core. That would be the same increase as the A6 to A6X. The last thing I think Apple might do is increase the value by starting at 32GB and moving up to 128GB at $799. At $499/32GB, it would represent a $49 increase compared to the $449/32GB Surface 2 and actually match the current $499/32GB Nexus 10, its two primary competitors. I think Apple realizes how important it is to keep their lead in tablet sales, as this is really the post-PC product, so by sacrificing a measly $5-7 in profits per iPad they can immediately gain a lot of praise and value compared to competing tablets.

 

So what do you guys think Apple will show off next month?

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