We seem to have had a change in the way that we mark the passing of the seasons. If there's rumours swirling around of what the next iPhone from Apple is going to be like it must be summer as we look forward to autumn. If the iPad rumours are being passed around it must be winter as we look forward to the spring release on that product cycle. And here only days after the winter solstice we see the first rumours about the next iPads. This time it's about what the mini-iPad update will be. Maybe?
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).
Seems likely enough. Of the very few complaints that the mini-iPad has received most are about that screen resolution. Why can't it be as fine as the larger machines? The other half of the prediction is about the iPad itself:
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.
And that doesn't sound nearly as exciting. Assuming that it's true that means just a slightly slimmer and smaller machine. An incremental improvement, but not really anything startling.
Of course, we've several months to go before we find out whether there will in fact be any new releases at all. But so far the new mini-iPad sounds pretty good, with the addition of Retina. The slightly slimmer iPad? Really, not all that exciting to be honest.
