Don’t Expect a 5th Gen iPad Release Early Next Year

One of the more interesting things to come out of today’s new iPad announcement was that the 3rd generation iPad didn’t just get a dock connector upgrade, as was expected, but a whole internal bump in specs.

Whereas everyone was anticipating a move to the Lightning connector, almost nobody was expecting an actual upgrade in processing power, as well as improved FaceTime camera capability. Well, that’s just what we got.

The 4th generation iPad (as Apple is calling it) now has an A6x processor, which is said to have twice the graphics performance as the A5X found in the 3rd generation iPad. This means that graphic intensive games and applications will not only load faster, but will render more smoothly and have an improved overall look. If you thought Infinity Blade 2 looked awesome on the 3rd gen iPad, then I imagine you can expect it to look even better on the newest generation. Graphics power isn’t the only thing Apple improved on here, with the FaceTime camera receiving the HD treatment. Now you’ll be able to FaceTime and video conference with others with a much more clear and higher resolution front-facing camera.

While these are all wonderful and unexpected improvements, one has to wonder: has Apple effectively killed the typical February/March iPad update schedule? And if so, does that mean we are now seeing the newest iPad until the next one comes out around this time next year?

Personally, I think so, and here is why.

This wouldn’t be an unprecedented move by Apple. If you remember, the iPhone line received its update around the beginning of summer until the iPhone 4S came into play. With that update, we saw the iPhone announcements move to October, running right alongside the already existing Fall iPod update announcements. Apple is notorious for simplifying their process in all that they do, so why wouldn’t they move to combine as many of their major announcements to the Fall? It makes sense, considering that this is usually the kick-off to the holiday shopping season, and this announcement time should leave everyone and their mother salivating at the mouth in hopes that Santa will leave a shiny new Apple device under the tree this year.

Even more convincing is the fact that we just saw the unveiling of the iPad Mini, and how awkward would it be to release two iPads at different stages of the year? This just makes complete sense. Now Apple will have quite a release schedule leading up to the holiday shopping season, creating even more buzz around their products, and adding even more cash to their piggy bank.

Touché, Apple