It's unlikely the rumored iPad 2 tablet will have a screen resolution of 2,048x1,536 pixels - four times that of the current 1,024x768 iPad. But future iPads might, according to research firm IDC.
Citing sources from component manufacturers, Taiwanese trade publication Digitimes reported Thursday that Apple will boost the iPad 2's resolution to "widen the company's technology gap with its competitors." Apple will begin mass production of the iPad 2 by the end of February, the report stated.
But IDC research manager Tom Mainelli believes the 2048 by 1536 prediction is premature.
"I think the Digitimes story probably got the resolution right, but the iPad version wrong," Mainelli told PCWorld via email. "Our sources say Apple has requested that manufacturers begin work on displays with that resolution for the iPad 3."
"I don't believe anybody is ready to produce that resolution in volumes at this point. And Apple is going to require huge volumes for the iPad 2," he added.
Media tablet shipments will grow from about 17 million units in 2010 to 44.6 million units in 2011, IDC forecasts. Apple iPads made up 90 percent of the tablet volume in Q3 2010.
"We expect Apple to continue to own the lion's share of that market in 2011," Mainelli wrote.
Details on Apple's next-generation tablet, which may ship as early as April, continue to trickle out from numerous sources. An AppleInsider story earlier this week said the iPad 2 will feature a dual-core graphics chip capable of playing 1080p HD video, as well as a high-resolution Retina display. The new iPad is also expected to include dual (front and rear) cameras.
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Comments received
Xhris2210 said on Mon, 24 Jan 2011
I can see the value of Apple producing a[n iPad] display capable of 1080p video, but can't see an awful lot of point making a 9.7 inch screen higher-res than that.
Video aside, that sort of resolution at that size just isn't going to be that useful for most things [possibly excepting games] and will require a sizable rewrite of the OS [in order to scale written content which at normal sizes would be miniscule] and of course imply large overheads on graphics processing and battery life.
To put it into context the iMac 27" is 'only' 2560 X 1440. Viewing distance may typically be a little closer for the iPad, but probably not the range most people would view their iPhones/iTouches at [which need a retina display to show full width web pages at 100%].
It just doesn't make ergonomic sense to produce the iPad at the same pixel-pitch - which is why I can't see Apple doing it no matter which iteration we're talking about...
Baskaran said on Tue, 25 Jan 2011
"will require a sizable rewrite of the OS"
Remember this is not Winblows...
It is hardcore Mac OS - Apple has proven it well with the iOS4 and iPhone 4 support for high resolution retina display. No messy re-writes.
Baskaran said on Tue, 25 Jan 2011
On top of that Apple is not foolish to release the clues in the SDK and tell the whole world that the future iPad will support high res. Apple leaks information only when the product is ready - as they do not want the copy cats copy the stuff before even the product is ready for release.
I am pretty sure the iPad 2.0 has high resolution display atleast 4x pixels as the original iPad. Apple will kill practically all the iPad killers for ever.
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