September splendor, iPad mini 2 delay, to Retina or not
With real information about iPad 5 and iPad mini 2 almost non-existent, the iOSsphere seized on the dregs, most of them provided by anonymous Asian supply chain sources.
The most prevalent rumor is the unfounded claim that iPad 5 will be announced and released in September, but iPad mini 2 won’t appear until the October-December quarter.
Unless you believe another rumor that both new tablets along with the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 6 and possibly a completely separate iPhone cheap will be announced at the same time in September.
Finally, contradictory rumors confirmed once more that no one really knows if the Next iPad mini will have a Retina display or not.
You read it here second.
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“A new rumour emerged claiming that Apple is set to release its iPhone 6, iPhone 5S, iPad 5 and iPad Mini 2 in one big event in September.”
Kristin Dian Mariano, International Business Times, who seems to have made up this rumor completely on her own, based on the “fact” that other rumors have predicted September as the month in which these products will be announced. Why not just put them all together and get it over with?
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iPad 5 will be announced in September but iPad mini 2 is “delayed.”
And the reason for the later date for the smaller tablet is that it “may receive further upgrades in specifications,” according to a post at DigiTimes.
Some in the iOSphere, predictably, are already interpreting this as a delay, caused by the iPad mini 2 “not being ready” in time. Thus RedmondPie’s Ben Reid: “[W]hile the iPad 5 is apparently set for a September release, the purported iPad mini [2] may not be ready in time, probably releasing later on in the year.”
Reid packs a lot of unexamined assumptions into that one statement: that iPad mini 2 originally was scheduled for September 2013 release, that it’s late, and that “probably” it will be released later in the year.
And he’s confident that given such a schedule “We are quickly approaching that time of the year whereby Apple’s supply chains begin leaking clues on the Cupertino’s upcoming products….”
Good luck with that because the basis for Reid’s post is the original DigiTimes’ post, with its “sources from the upstream supply chain,” which is the usual breeding ground for DigiTimes’ Apple rumors. And as usual, there is remarkably little detail, let alone clues or even hints, offered by these presumably informed supply chain sources.
Except for one, and it’s a big one, buried near the end of the DigiTimes post: “As for the new 7.9-inch iPad mini, the sources pointed out that Apple is still considering whether to adopt a Retina Display for the device, and if the company decides to do so, the product’s release may be delayed to the end of the fourth quarter.”
This revelation contracts the Accepted Wisdom of the iOSphere since shortly after the original iPad mini was announced in 2012 – that the Next Obvious Improvement would be to upgrade its screen to the high resolution Retina display.
Without any expert knowledge of Apple’s supply chain, it nevertheless seems a bit late in the game to be deciding on whether you’re going to replace the main iPad mini display, and do it in time to have any hope of offering the new iPad mini for sale during at least part of the year-ending holiday quarter. The change would involve possibly retooling not just Foxconn assembly lines but those of the display manufacturers, and their suppliers. And that doesn’t take into account the need for enough processing and graphics processing power, and battery power, to drive the much higher resolution display.
According to DigiTimes, “Apple is expected to announce its fifth-generation 9.7-inch iPad in September as scheduled,” which is a nice touch since the phrasing makes the Apple announcement sound as precise as a publicly announced re-entry plan for a NASA space shuttle.
Yet two paragraphs later, DigiTimes has this: “Although suppliers have not yet received a firm mass production schedule from Apple and are mainly shipping products for pilot production, the sources pointed out that pilot production is already able to satisfy demand for the initial launch. Therefore, the sources expect Apple to give its shipment estimates at the end of July or early August.”
DigiTimes is saying that iPad 5 is scheduled for September launch even though as yet there’s no schedule for mass production of the devices. From this posting, it’s not clear whether or not this is a routine practice for Apple, and for consumer electronics companies in general, or something unusual.
The post recycles the widely accepted, if not well grounded, rumor that the next full-sized iPad will have a “slimmer bezel design to allow a bigger viewing area.” That doesn’t sound quite right: reducing the width of the “border” or “frame” around the 9.7-inch iPad display wouldn’t increase the display’s surface area – it would still be 9.7-inches diagonally. But the reduction could allow Apple to make the length and width of the iPad somewhat smaller and to create the illusion that the screen is, relatively, bigger.
Apparently, at least according to DigiTimes’ supply chain sources, Apple also wants to make the iPad mini’s mini bezel still smaller, and possibly nonexistent. DigiTimes: “Apple has also been asking its upstream supply partners to further shrink the next-generation iPad mini’s bezel, aiming to push a bezel-less design similar to that of Samsung and HTC’s large-size smartphones.”
If this is true, the months-long speculation that Apple is reducing the 9.7-inch iPad bezel in part to mimic the outside design of the iPad mini is another example of misreading Apple’s options, plans, and actions. The iPad 5 will end up mimicking the first-generation iPad mini.
CNET’s Brooke Crothers claims to believe that “a distinct theme has emerged about the timing of upcoming Apple tablets: The iPad 5 is on track, while the Retina Mini is up in the air.”
Yet for all anyone really knows, both products are on track, because Apple plans to introduce one first and then the other.
The theme that Crothers says is emerging is based on “speculation” and “continuing chatter” the credibility of which is highly variable. Much of it is from badly reported postings that depend on completely anonymous supply chain sources. Based on that, Crothers says regarding iPad mini 2: “Don’t hold your breath.”
Crothers quotes one analyst who makes a point that allows us to be even more skeptical of the DigiTimes post. “Ideally, [display makers] should be producing in high volume one or two quarters before Apple can use the display,” Sweta Dash, senior director of LCD research at IHS iSuppli, told CNET previously.”
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