Apple's iPad 2 will feature a better quality display, faster chips, separate CDMA and GSM versions, iPod touch-like dual cameras, and vendors will produce 4.5 to 5 million units in the first quarter, according to a new report from Taiwan.
No Retina Display
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of Concord Securities has prepared a report indicating that iPad 2 won't get higher resolution screen this year, using the same 1024x768 of the original iPad.
"The improvement of iPad 2 display," the report notes, "focuses on thickness and anti-reflection, not resolution. iPad 2 display module is 30~35% thinner than iPad 1 and it’s helpful for better form factor.
"Thanks to anti-reflection, iPad 2 could have better sunlight readable experience and it's helpful for Apple to compete with Amazon's fast growing Kindle business.
"The most important reason why iPad 2 won’t have retinal display is yield rate of panel making. At this point, making high resolution and bright IPS/FFS panel is not easy and the production volume and cost couldn’t meet Apple’s requirements."
Faster, better, stronger
The new iPad model is also said to pack much higher processing power, graphics and more RAM and faster memory access. The greater computing power of the revised iPad "could ensure iPad 2‘s competitive advantage for coming tablet war this year," the report notes.
"iPad 2 will use [ARM] Cortex-A9 dual core processor running at 1.2GHz. Increasing 1~2% single core processor clock results in a 3~5% power increase and dual core could get a better balance between computing power and power consumption. That's the reason why Apple will use dual core for iPad 2."
As expected, the report also states "iPad 2 will also have a GPU using Imagination’s SGX543 dual core graphics technology which is 200~300% powerful than iPhone 4."
RAM is also on the rise, the report says. "For making full use of GPU upgrading advantage, iPad 2 needs bigger memory bandwidth. So iPad 2 has 512MB RAM, same as iPhone 4 and twice as much as iPad 1, but running at higher clock 1,066 MHz for getting bigger memory bandwidth (iPhone 4 memory clock is 800 MHz)."
3G and cameras
Rather than being made available in a world-mode version, the report say "iPad 2 adds one new CDMA model and it could bring more market share to Apple. Project IDs of Wi-Fi, GSM and CDMA iPad 2 models are different. GSM iPad will use Infineon chip and CDMA iPad will use Qualcomm chip. More suppliers could reduce the risk of component shortage."
The possibility of an SD Card slot is mentioned, but not confirmed, but the report notes iPad 2 will have two cameras, but with components shared with iPad touch, rather than the higher quality iPhone 4 cameras.
"There are more and more photo and video editing applications for iPad in App Store. The SD slot could let users easily transfer photo and video files made by DSC and DV to iPad and edit them," the report observed, falling short of actually confirming whether a card slot will be present.
"iPad has two cameras. Front camera is 0.3 mega-pixel [VGA, like iPhone 4] and rear one is 1 mega-pixel [like iPod touch, rather than iPhone 4]. Front camera is for Facetime and Photo Booth and 0.3 mega-pixel is enough because the resolution of iPad 2 is 1,024x768. Rear camera is for applications such as video recording and augmented reality."
4.5 to 5 million units in 1Q 2011
The report notes Foxconn will remain the iPad's sole maker, noting that production began this month and will result in "at least 4.5 - 5 million units for Apple in 1Q'11. iPad 2 will likely go to market in late 1Q'11 or early 2Q'11 based on supply chain shipment status."
