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Apple Reportedly Working on $299 iPad

By | January 3, 2012 | 6 comments
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In just a few months, Apple will be announcing its next generation tablet. There are a frenzy of rumors ahead of any product release, and the iPad 3 is no different. Between now and March or April, you can expect to hear all kinds of rumors about the specs, form factor, and cost of the new iPad 3.

Some of those rumors will be true, and some won’t, but speculation gives us all something to do while we wait impatiently for Apple’s upgrade. Today rumormonger site Digitimes has new information from its oft-cited “Apple supply chain,” stating that there will be more than one version of the new iPad.

Apple’s current base iPad model starts at $499 for 16GB of storage. For mobile devices – the iPod, the iPod Nano, the iPod Touch, the iPhone, and the iPad – Apple has traditionally based its pricing on storage capacity.

Digitimes believes that Apple is going to change its pricing strategy for the iPad 3, introducing two versions of the tablet. While both will feature the A6 processor, the higher end model will have a high resolution display (2048×1536) and the mid-tier model will have the same display that’s currently in the iPad 2 (1024×768). The current iPad 2 would be considered Apple’s low end model, and have the lowest pricing.

Will Apple bend under the pressure of Amazon’s Kindle Fire, and introduce a low-end version of the iPad 3? Or will it simply keep the iPad 2 on shelves and lower its price once the iPad 3 is out? While it’s unlikely and out of character for the company, a lower cost iPad is a possibility, especially given the success of the Kindle Fire.

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  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/TGZ75URQ6DKTCNXV3RV36ZKALQ Matthew

    I’m sorry… why do people keep barfing out Digitimes news stories?  They change their own rumors weekly to get more hits.  Also, if iPad is dominating the tablet market at current prices, why would they lower their profit margins?  This rumor makes no sense based on past Apple behavior.  They don’t participate in the margin-killing race to the bottom on price.   I can see them lowering prices if, and only if, they find a much cheaper way to make iPads.

    • Anonymous

      Shame on you for using logic. You have dashed the hopes and dreams of the unwashed masses who expect a new iPad delivered by a leprechan riding on a unicorn.

      Kindle firesale costs more to make then sell, but they’ll make that up in volume right?

    • http://twitter.com/julipuli Juli Clover

      Probably because Digitimes might stumble across a rumor that’s true. 

      Apple did drop the price of the iPhone 4 in comparison to the iPhone 4S – it’s $100 to the 4S’s $200 – rather than phasing it out completely. I think the most likely situation (if Apple does go with a lower cost tablet) is an iPad 2 with a lower price tag. 

  • Anonymous

    How about an 8gb wi-fi only iPad 2 for only $200?  That would shock the tech world and be a massive hit.  The 16gb could then be $300.  A 32gb with 3G could be $400.  The new iPad 3s would come in starting at $500 just as the iPads do now!

  • Anonymous

    Go Apple!

    An iPad 2 with 8 Gig Storage for $199 would kill everything in its path including the Kindle Fire.
    An iPad 2 with 16 Gig Storage for $299 would sell really well.
    An iPad 3 with 16 -32 Gigs and 1028×732 resolution would take the middle road at $399 to $499
    An iPad 3 with 32-64 Gigs and Retinal Display would take the high end at $599 to $899.

    Wow! A killer spread.  

  • Anonymous

    Every time Apple is ready to release a new iPhone or iPad, this comes up. They will not offer a $299 iPad3. Period.  The “$299 iPad” that they are “working  on” will be the 16 gig iPad 2, not an iPad 3. It’s the same pricing model they have been using for the past 4 years. Rumor??