That’s exactly it John!

That’s completely true (in my situation anyway) I had iPhone 3G didn’t bother with 3GS, got the iphone 4 and am now patiently waiting on iphone 5, same situation with iPad, considering the iPad 3 now as an upgrade from iPad 1.
Love them or hate them,apple know how to keep people hooked and demand high. And their products are all top class. I was a reluctant convert to mac but now have pretty much the whole set. Wont be going back to a PC anytime soon or getting rid of my iPhone. I suspect a lot of people are in similar situations.

saw a guy standing in a church taking pictures at a wedding with his ipad recently, caused a few laughs..

I agree, improving the rear camera is rather futile in my opinion. It’s nice to know its there, but I couldn’t see myself using it on a regular basis. However, if they concentrated their efforts on the front facing camera, for video calling (or FaceTime, if your so inclined), it would be a far more beneficial use of resources.

€60 for mine?

How do you know it’s poor? You’re not judging it on the megapixel count I presume?

In fact im sure the camera is excellent, the iPhone 4′s certainly is

5mp is HD, which is actually brilliant for a tablet.

iphone 4 camera isnt great . the shutter speed is all wrong. i have one and it is the camera thing that puts me off it.. the nokia phone cameras are better i think

Agree. Tis poor for a tablet. Given the space available compared to a phone you think they’d put a proper camera in there with larger sensor & good flash.

p.s. Nokia N8 has been the best camera phone on the market for 18 months. Nokia Pureview 808 is currently the best bar none.

How is it a rip off when it’s better than your current one but for the same price? Just wondering like…

Because I already have an iPad 2 and don’t fancy forking out another couple of hundred to buy an iPad 3 which doesn’t have many additional features.

Then don’t John! It’s not a rip off! You have an ipad2 which was top of the range when you bought it within the last year. Technology has moved on and it’s been refreshed for the new consumer and anyone who choses to upgrade!
If you still Find value in yours great but I don’t see how you feel it’s a rip off!

That’s not a rip off John, that’s you just already owning a similar device. It’s actually, as a better device, less of a rip off that your iPad 2. So really, you’ve lost out here: same money, inferior device

Thanks lads for the support! I think I’ll go around to ford in my 2011 focus to tell them this years model is a rip off!

Well then… John? Anything?

Hahaha… Look how quick the apple nerds are to jump on the defensive #Lol

It’ll be roughly the same as current models. If its one thing apple are good at its maintaining price of new models instead of charging premium for newer models.

Spot on same as the 4S

We can’t introduce “4G” until all analog TV signals are removed from the airwaves, as they are currently occupying the same spectrum as LTE. Expect to see LTE expansion in the coming year or so.

(actually, LTE is not technically 4G, but all the big names are calling it that anyway)

The ipad HD.. MORE LIKE IT..

It’s not called the iPad hd either… It’s “The New iPad”

No I think they’re moving away from the yearly numerical increases. As in they don’t call a new MacBook air the MacBook air 3, the iMac 10 etc. they might continue doing so with the iPhone but I reckon they want the iPad to be the post pc poster boy

Actually you can upload pics once you buy their SD adapter. All part of Apple’s or more precisely Steve Job’s vision of a totally integrated Apple eco-system :)

USB is dead… Steve Jobs was years ahead of competition in visionary thinking and only now it comes out that his genius head was right. No flash support and all big mouths moaning about it and now what? Flash is in decline big time, adobe themselves are pulling the plug on it, html5 way to go. No USB support and what now? Cloud syncing like Dropbox, box, sugar sync, iCloud…. set new standards. No tv out port? Why would you need one when you air stream play etc. etc. Steve well knew where it all was heading too…

You can get a USB adapter to upload your pic files from a camera . You can also plug a hard drive into it using the right app if it’s jail broken . Apple will never put a USB socket on the device as it would draw too much power . The adapter is cheap enough and available in apple stores and has a USB slot and a card slot …..

One of the reasons there isnt a usb port is that apple dont want a lead & hard drive (not made by them) attached to it.

Whats this jailbroken app Niall?

I have a 1st gen iPad, and as you say, it does most things I require of it, but then a member of my family recently got an apple TV, and I felt that my tablet was suddenly out of date. There are a few really nice media features you miss out on without an iPad 2 or later.

thats the US! remember shipping factors and RIP-OFF ireland

The 499 does not include tax. It’s more like 659.

Sales tax in Washington is between 8 and 10% depending on where you are (being a blow in I can’t speak for other parts of the country). This is one of the reasons prices are quoted excluding sales tax. The article would appear to have an error regarding US pricing. iPad 2 is also dropping $100 to $400 US dollars. No doubt apple are maintaining there double digit margins. (unheard of in the industry)

Your opinion, and I disagree with everything you said.

It’s not really a minor update, the camera is excellent. White balance, ambient light sensor, ridiculously good optics and full HD support. The display has 4 times the resolution than last years model. According to reports it has 3.1 million pixels on a 9.7 inch screen. Thats major for a tablet that gets better updates EVERY year.

If you look at Apple’s last few releases, they’ve had the iPad 2, the iPhone 4s and now this new iPad. All of them have been incremental improvements on the previous device rather than an entirely new device.

I have no idea, but maybe they’ve decided that it’s better for them to make gradual but significant improvements every year than to blow people away every two or three years. They are now in a position where they have so many hardcore customers who’ll queue overnight to buy anything they put out, that they don’t have to justify their products to rest of us. We just have to decide when to take the plunge and buy the latest and greatest iteration.

I have no love or loyalty to Apple, but in my opinion they have the best phone, they have the best tablet and everybody else is playing catch up to them. So why should they sit out 2012, let their competitors get a foothold in the tablet market and then have it all to do again in 2013, when they can just keep the wheel turning and force others to take risks in order to catch up with them?

Of course, that strategy could bite them in the arse if and when some innovator comes along with a product to blow the iPad away, but every innovator has a price and Apple has $100bn in cash.

Would be so cool, but can’t see the movies companies bending over like the music companies did. What a launderette it would be though!!

Dam fat fingers

€399 for a 16GB iPad 2 althought it may be anywhere up to €429. Should be able to get one at that price pretty much from tomorrow on but a few retailers might try and pocket a higher margin for a few days at the normal €499. Buy quick because Apple drain their supply chain of older models. Once they are gone from shops, will be difficult to buy on unless you go to Apple direct.

And the award for stating the blatently obvious goes to………!

I was referring to it being incorrectly called the ‘iPad 3′ in the headline.

We’re you expecting it to grant you 3 wishes?
It’s only a year since the last one, at least they are showing the foresight to provide regular upgrades!

For me: memory upgrade and Siri would be the deal clincher

Ice Cream Sandwich

Nah, they’ve got it all figured out. They’re going to wait until the iPad 9 to drop Tetris on us, then BOOM!

Game over, Samsung.

I know and when the ipad 4 is released people will be saying its mad to buy it and just wait for the ipad 5.

Yeah just like the iPad 2 was going to be blown out of the water too? Best selling tablet ever.

Good joke Glenn… No tablet blows iPads of the water for one simple reason: even though others may be superior technically (as more companies do them vs just one apple) then android market is far behind when compared to apple market. Apple apps are much slicker, neater, selection is awfully better too. Android market is good, but apple market is just mind blowing.

@John Tulley
Apple are great at marketing and selling products – they were the only show in town last couple of years for tablets – landscape is changing – not saying this won’t sell like hot cakes I am just saying it’s more of the same from Apple and they really haven’t taken any massive strides over the past 12 months

@fizi_water
Thats the OS your talking about not the tablet
Agreed the Apple store is great but for sheer tablet technology and innovation Apple are beginning to drop off the pace. Android is making huge strides in tablet OS and integrating it in to an all in one solution similar to iOS. Also don’t see your point of Apple v The World – are Asus not just one company too are Blackberry not a single company? Just because a group of companies choose an OS doesn’t mean they are all out to ‘get Apple’? Everyone has to compete and Apple are beginning to falter. Until they bring out some new innovation I really don’t see the major advantage of buying this version over the iPad 2. It has a clearer screen but it’s fatter and heavier (to fit that extra battery it needs to run the screen)

But it has 4G! And the Wi-Fi’s!

@ Aaron what good is 4G to you?

Then update to ios 5.1

Gotta love the “I for one won’t be buying it as I’ve no use for it” types posting on this thread.

How often do you buy things you don’t need?

Why Jimbo? What’s obvious? Care to elaborate? Go on, please, I want you to, because I have got a clue… Whenever you’re ready.

Yeah if you buy from Apple. 379 here I guess, or whatever it is now with the new VAT

You’re amazing Jimbo, you can type and spell without actually saying anything! Idiot

What innovations have we seen in the past 18 months from Apple? Don’t tell me Siri or Notifications in iOS are innovations – they have been around for a while now.
As for Apple cracking TV – let me think… how could I get TV shows with PVR, radio, on demand movies, apps, email, songs, photos all my content in the corner of my living room and all controlled by voice or motion???? Ah I know a HTPC with Kinect and my bog standard TV and all for under a grand or even less if I shop around. These things have been around for an age so Apple sticking it all in one box is not rocket science and it sure as hell isn’t innovation

@glenn Ahh but has your kinect-pc-etc device taken off? Sold millions? Has its own section in dixons?

Apple will do it, and better, and make it easier for the average joe soap to buy it. They don’t necessarily innovate tech wise, but they do in combining tech into a workable package for the layman and marketing it

Sadly they’ll also charge a premium. But most punters don’t have the smarts to shop around and piece it together, or fix it when it goes wrong.

Indeed – Apple have stopped innovating and are now just another tech company that produce more of the same stuff for the average Joe Soap
Unfortunately the average Joe Soap has no clue what the possibilities of tech are and so will just follow like sheep on what they have been told by a friend or read on a newspaper. This is where Apple are great – they really have a knack of pulling in the punters and then just getting them to shell out on more of the same stuff every 18 months. Good ploy and I can’t blame them (that’s where SJ was good – he really knew how to lure people in and sell them products)

@Sean
Kinect sales are massive (over 10 million I would imagine) – PC sales are probably unquantifiable and your guess is as good as mine on the amount of TVs out there – If Joe Soap wants then they can connect all 3 and it will do darn well about anything
Oh yes Apple will stick it all in one box and probably charge €1500 + for the decent 40 inch version but I can get the exact same functionality for a lot less without being walled in to Apples garden.
That’s the problem with Apple – people just don’t think there are alternatives so they take the easy way out and don’t try any other stuff and hence the prices of Apple stuff stays up around the high end as they know people will buy it no matter how good/innovative/practical it is

Tablets may take over as a replace for laptops, look at the ASUS Transformer…it’s basically a detectable laptop anyway. As for laptops replacing desktops, not chance in hell is that going to happening anytime soon.

I don’t see the iPad being the way forward for the future of computing, tablets are ok for things like on the go or travelling, but other than that I can’t see the need for one. Smartphone’s are good even enough for on the go or travelling so why the need for a tablet anyway?

I still see them mostly as a pointless product trying to fill a gap that doesn’t really need filling