Bloomberg: iPad 3 To Have Quad-Core CPU, LTE, High-Def Screen

You’ve just got to love the timing. First, Apple announces their education-focused media event smack dab in the middle of CES. Now, just as CES is winding down, Bloomberg has “three people familiar with the product” spilling purported details on the next iPad. Whether or not Apple won CES without even being there, they’re certainly trying.

None of the leaked details are particularly new, but that it comes from Bloomberg and they’ve seemingly got full confidence in their source(s) makes them a bit more credible than rumors prior.

Here’s the gist of it:

  • The next iPad (Bloomberg calls it “iPad 3”, though even that detail is of course unconfirmed) is said to have gone into production this month, with production ramping up until February, with a launch in March.
  • It’ll have a quad-core CPU (as opposed to the dual-core A5 found in iPad 2)
  • It’ll have a “high-def” screen
  • Support for LTE (4G)

The most curious bit? The use of the phrase “high-def” instead of “Retina” with regards to the display. If Apple was throwing around the “Retina” term internally, at least one of Bloomberg’s three sources presumably would’ve thought to mention it. If the sources mentioned it, Bloomberg would have squeezed it into the article somewhere — and they didn’t. With leaks like this, what’s not said can be as important as what is. Higher-res screen? Yes. But the absurdly high-resolution that a “retina” iPad would require (something like 2560 x 1920, higher than any monitor Apple has ever made regardless of size)? Probably not.