iPad with Retina display aka The 4th Gen. iPad

ByMike Moffit

I bet this one came as a surprise to you. I know I wasn’t fully expecting it, though we all knew that it had to happen someday. Now I am sure that a lot of people who bought a 3rd Generation iPad aren’t really happy with this announcement. You probably feel a bit slighted by Apple and that is understandable. But what you really have to do is break things down a bit and see that the upgrades Apple made were minor.

Apple is now calling this new guy iPad with Retina display. Funny the 3rd Gen. iPad had a Retina display too but they didn’t call it that. So that is one feature unchanged. Next we have the cameras. They are still 1.2MP front and 5MP rear cameras, same as before. The next part I will give the point to you angry folks. Apple introduced the A6X processor which is an improved version of the A6 processor Apple just released in their iPhone 5. Apple reports the A6X is twice as fast as the A5X (the processor in the 3rd Gen. iPad) yet it is still a dual-core processor with quad-core graphics. So it is similar but different and definitely faster. The final piece of the iPad puzzle is the Lightning Connector. This is the part I thought Apple would silently and slowly roll out with newer iPads being shipped. The Lightning Connector is a better port hands-down so we should all be happy that Apple is using the best tech they have in their products.

Sure this is a bit of a shocker and you might think Apple is out of line doing what they did but think at it from the perspective of a technology race. Apple wants to satisfy you the customer and deliver the latest and greatest technology they can to everyone. If Apple waited another six months to release an iPad with updated tech people would be complaining. You can’t be as big as Apple and not step on a few toes here and there. The 3rd Gen. iPad is still a rock solid machine so if you have one be happy that you have one of the greatest tablets on the market today. If you are the kind of person that needs the latest and greatest from Apple then you will have to suck it up and buy a new iPad and maybe do a little bit of self reflection and ask why I need this when it isn’t broken or outdated.

I would love to hear what other consumers of Apple products think of this update to the iPad. You can comment here on the blog, stop into any of our retail locations to have a chat or check us out on Facebook and let your voice be heard.

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