Even with Apple’s launch of the fourth-generation iPad last month, Apple is rumored to be preparing to launch yet another new iPad in the coming months. According to Macotakara, a thinner, lighter version of the iPad with 9.7-inch display is due in March 2013.
This release would be a year after the launch of the third-generation iPad. Apple’s first three generations of its tablet followed a March/April release cycle.
The report claims that this new iPad will, unsurprisingly, pick up the design elements from Apple’s iPad mini. The iPad mini inherited the iPhone 5’s black/slate and white/silver designs…
Macotakara also claims some next-generation iPad dimensions: “the expectation comes to have a small 4mm in height, 17mm in width, depth 2mm.” These numbers are obviously unrealistic expectations for the fifth-generation iPad’s actual size, but these numbers would make sense in the context of being millimeters smaller in all of the iPad’s physical dimensions than the current iPad.
The current, fourth-generation iPad measures in at dimensions of 241.2 mm by 185.7 mm by 9.4 mm, so those numbers subtracted by Macotakara‘s numbers would point to a thinner iPad that is slightly shorter and narrower. The new supposed thinness would mean the next iPad is nearly as thin as the 7.2mm thin iPad mini.
A March 2013 fifth-generation iPad release would be roughly five months following the current iPad’s November release. This seems aggressive by Apple’s old iPad release pattern, but the quick succession of the third iPad to the current model, along with the recent launch of the iPad mini, shows that Apple is moving faster than ever in the tablet space.
The same report also claims that Apple is working on a second generation of the iPad mini. This new model is said to include a Retina display with the same resolution as the third and fourth generation iPads (2048 x 1536).
Digitimes previously reported that the iPad mini would gain a Retina display in its second generation and that the next 9.7-inch iPad would be thinner and lighter.
Macotakara previously pinpointed accurate information regarding dimensions of unreleased iPads. The site has also been previously accurate with Apple product production timeframes and various design information.
