A report released on February 9 discusses whether or not the new iPad will be called the iPad 3 or the iPad 4G. According to those close to the situation, the new iPad will have 4G LTE capabilities. This means that the tablet would be able to connect to the internet on the faster networks in the country such as Verizon Wireless and AT&T.
It has been rumored that the new iPad, whatever it is called, will be announced on March 7. The majority of the rumors surrounding the new iPad have been centered on the tablet’s design and display, not its possible 4G capabilities. Apple is trying to give its new tablet something called a Retina Display. A Retina Display has a crisp resolution, so much so that users will not be able to see the pixels on the screen.
For the most part, Apple produces the most popular smartphone and the most popular tablet in the United States but the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2 are not 4G capable. AT&T and Verizon Wireless would see their sales explode if Apple does in fact make their new tablet 4G compatible. When it comes to number of customers, AT&T and Verizon Wireless are the two largest mobile companies in the country. Both companies have spent billions of dollars trying to improve their wireless 4G networks. Advertisements have been running recently by both networks trying to lure new customers by touting the speeds of their networks even though they do not have an Apple product that is 4G compatible.
If Apple releases a new iPad with 4G capability it would be the first 4G compatible product released by the company. There was constant speculation that the iPhone 5 was going to have 4G capability but Apple decided to release the iPhone 4S back in October of 2011, which was a 3G phone. In January of 2011, Verizon saw its first iPhone, the iPhone 4. When this phone was released, Tim Cook, the COO at the time for Apple, said the following that a larger chip “would force design compromises we’re not willing to make.”
In January of this year, Verizon said that all of its smartphones would be featuring 4G LTE. This statement has forced rumors that the next version of the iPhone, either the 5 or the 6, will be the first iPhone with 4G capability. The iPad 2 is a little bit thinner than the iPhone 4S and it has been rumored that the new iPad will be thicker than the iPad 2.