iPad 3 Release Date Set For Early 2012, WSJ Reports

Will the iPad 3 really not be ready in time for Christmas?

According to a new report out of the Wall Street Journal, it might be an iPad 3-less holiday season, as Apple is preparing its newest iPad for an "early 2012" release, according to the Journal's unnamed "people familiar with the situation." The iPad 3 has long been rumored to have a 2048-by-1536 pixel display, up from the 1024-by-768 pixel display of the iPad 2, and the Wall Street Journal reports this will be the case, while also offering other details on the next-generation tablet.

The iPad 3 had previously been expected to have a fall or winter 2011 release, as MacRumors notes, perhaps alongside the hotly-anticipated iPhone 5. Yet according to Digitimes, due to various problems in the supply chain, the release could be pushed back to after the new year. Digitimes reported earlier this month that Apple may have encountered problems with LG Display screens used for the tablet and been forced secure a different manufacturer, pushing back the launch date for the iPad 3.

The rumor is worth noting as the Journal has a strong track record when it comes to predicting upcoming Apple launches. They correctly predicted that Verizon would be getting iPhones 4 months before the official announcement, and they nailed several features of the iPad 2 before its release. Whoever they're talking to at Apple, the Journal's sources have often been correct.

The tablet market just got a little less crowded, of course, after HP killed its Touchpad line and announced it would shut down tablet production altogether. But rivals aren't giving up without a fight and there have been rumors that like Amazon may be gunning to produce its own answer to the iPad.

WATCH:

Comments

[ResearchtheFacts]

02:51 PM on 08/20/2011

With just 110 comments on this page now you know why. lol

[duttyfoot]

03:43 AM on 08/20/2011

No one should be surprised by this news, we all know this is how they do business.

[Abdi S]

11:06 PM on 08/19/2011

It's a giant ipod!

[planetmango]

12:07 AM on 08/20/2011

you are sooo wrong. it's a lot of things, but definitely not a giant iPod..

[blizzard man robot voice]

08:23 PM on 08/19/2011

I take WSJ at its word here because as a NewsCorp affiliate, they surely have special ways to get information.

[DRaymond]

08:18 PM on 08/19/2011

Good grief!   Apple NEVER comes out with a major release of a product less than one year after the prior one.   The reason is that the 'buy everything the day it comes out' crowd is a big chunk of sales and even more important a big part of their hype.  If that crowd thinks that they are being taken advantage of.  Then when the news crews come to the 'first day' story and find that the lines are both shorter and full of people who are unhappy....well there goes that!

[seriousbidness]

10:25 AM on 08/20/2011

That argument has been squashed numerous times. Although it is good for sales to make people wait and build the hype. But regardless of when it hits, even in this down economy, both iphone 5 and ipad 3 will be big successes.

There is a lot of data to support this too. We should be happy they're waiting until next year. Because people "do" get mad when they purchase the next generation of products only to have it replaced so quickly. But they still buy :).

[Tazirai]

06:29 PM on 08/19/2011

Being S.......L.......A.......V.......E.......S.... to a single company is a bad thing.. Wake up.

[Shukr]

06:19 PM on 08/19/2011

Apple truly understands its naive base of consumers. "The new long awaited iPad 3. Now with a bigger screen!"

[John MC]

06:15 PM on 08/19/2011

It's like drugs. They get you addicted and then keep coming out with a new model every year for you to buy - and since your addicted you know you need the newest one because it does that one thing better.

Don't let your kids Apple

[ran6110]

05:41 PM on 08/19/2011

Seriously, can you imagine how many would be totally upset at Apple if they come out with and iPad 3 so soon...

[onlythetruthcounts]

05:35 PM on 08/19/2011

It's the iPhone 5 that is months and months "overdue," not the iPad. The current iPad can stew a while longer.

[J0E1]

04:13 PM on 08/19/2011

The ipad was never coming out before xmas. Apple has a very specific product launch schedule: June/July for iphones (with an exception this year) and March/April for ipads. Apple will sell thousands of ipad2's to holiday shoppers and then grab 25% of them a few months later with an ipad 3 release. Releasing the ipad 3 before the holidays doesn't fit to their schedule or make sense in the least bit.

[SURFER DUDE]

03:34 PM on 08/19/2011

Flash?

[CaptainObvvious]

03:54 PM on 08/19/2011

No...

I am fine with my device not running a buggy resource hog when there are alternatives available.

[SURFER DUDE]

04:41 PM on 08/19/2011

Over half the "watch video" on this site alone is flash content. I can't view it on my iPad. So what alternative are available besides cut and paste the link to Skyfire....and that's a real pain in the @ss.

[veisalgia]

04:26 PM on 08/19/2011

Many devices run flash. If you need flash, buy those devices. Flash crashes my Mac and my PC more often than anything else. Good riddance. Hello HTML5.

[Uptown83]

05:16 PM on 08/19/2011

regardless it should have flash support. There is really no argument on why it shouldn't.

[SeptimusDSX]

03:30 PM on 08/19/2011

This is probably because the next iteration of the ARM Cortex has been delayed.

[orbs]

03:25 PM on 08/19/2011

lol...this is a decades long pattern for them.

Snag good idea from other products, bring them all together in a smartly produced product...

and then fall on their face as they don't have much doing until enough other ideas from other companies are out there for them to do it all over again. In the meantime...their #2,and 3 generation in the line of successful first generation product have nothing new going for them.

Well, nothing new that they didn't lift or purchase from someone else's product line to cram under the hood of one of their own.

[CaptainObvvious]

03:56 PM on 08/19/2011

Funny, you say they're unoriginal but ti wasn't until the iPhone was released that their competition started trying to mimic its success by developing something just like it.

It wasn't until the iPad that their competition jumped head first into the tablet market trying to chase their coattails again.

They're falling flat on their face? They are destroying the competition and selling the iPad 2 as fast as they can make it while their competition's offering collects dust in a warehouse.

[orbs]

04:24 PM on 08/19/2011

Fooling the consumer...its kids stuff.

Look under the hood of any Apple...good luck finding 5% of the componentry to be Apple in origin. They source the componentry from over 30 different companies the globe over.

Yes, they are good at taking existing technology off of someone else's shelf and putting it in an elegant package. That though, is the extent of their talent.

[veisalgia]

04:32 PM on 08/19/2011

I know! All that, and Dude types "Flash?" (tapping foot with arms crossed) while zillions are LOVING the devices. You got over floppies......

[ArticulateAndClean]

03:24 PM on 08/19/2011

Problems in the supply chain?

Are Steve Jobs' slave-wage chinese laborers demanding more money?

Outrageous!

As Apple company valuation exceeds that of evil oil company Exxon...

[CaptainObvvious]

03:57 PM on 08/19/2011

The preceding was brought to you via a computer likely made in China using the same slave labor he is complaining about.

[cuoi]

05:11 PM on 08/19/2011

Don't worry- they are developing robots to replace those complaining laborers...who needs them anyway?!~~~
Down the road, not too far, will there be enough people left who can buy these things?