Less than a week separates us from iPad 3 presentation conference and the rumors related to the new tablet will multiply. Last evening DigiTimes published two articles in which they announced the launch of an iPad 3 tablet with a 7.85-inch screen and the launch of a version of the iPad 2 tablet with a 9.7-inch screen, but with a storage space of only 8 GB. Their article says that the 7.85-inch version of the iPad 3 would be produced in Q3 2012 because prototypes are currently being delivered to Apple engineers for testing. The new tablet would have a price of $249 - $299, an extremely good one that will make the tablets from Amazon or other similar tablets forgotten.
The planned launch of the 7.85-inch iPad is apparently to take on Amazon's US$199 7-inch Kindle Fire as well as a comparable model from Barnes & Noble, although Apple already took up nearly a 60% share of the tablet PC market in 2011 , indicated the sources. The price of the 7.85-inch iPad is likely to be set at US$249-299, since Apple is also expected to release an 8GB iPad 2 for US$349-399, and has lowered the price of the 16GB iPad 2 to US$449, the sources noted.
The iPad 2 tablet with a 9.7-inch screen and a storage space of only 8 GB would now be launched together with the iPad 3 and would have a price of $349 - $399. Those from Apple would apparently be willing to give up the 64 GB version of the iPad 3, producing only the iPad 2 with 8 GB of storage space, the iPad 2 16 GB and two 16/32 GB models of the iPad 3 tablet. The reason for this apparent change would be offering reduced prices for the iPad 3 tablet to convince as many consumers as possible to buy it. Apple is currently extremely interested in destroying the competition on the tablet market, but I don't think that eliminating the 64 GB model will help anything.
As Apple has scheduled an event on March 7, sources from its upstream supply chain pointed out that the company is expected to launch two iPad 3 models – a 16GB version and a 32GB version. In addition to iPad 3, Apple is also expected to unveil an 8GB iPad 2, allowing the tablet PC series to cover different segments and to defend against Windows 8-based tablet PCs, the sources noted.
In conclusion, DigiTimes claims that: iPad 2 in 8 GB version will be announced on March 7 and iPad 3 in 64 GB version will no longer be available. The price of the 2 GB iPad 8 tablet would be $349-$399, and the rest of the tablets would have similar prices. In the fall, we should also see a 7.85-inch version of the iPad 3 that would cost $249-$299, but I think this is unlikely. However... what happens to the rumor that the iPad 3 will be more expensive?
