New report says Apple iPad 3 to launch in March or April

Just the other day, we told you about a Citi analyst who is calling for the Apple iPad 3 to launch in February with a higher resolution display. Now, another Citi analyst named Kevin Chang, checked in with his supplier sources and found that Foxconn plans on manufacturing the next version of the iPad starting in January with full scale production ramping up in February. This dovetails with information that DigiTimes received from part suppliers to the Apple iPad 3 calling for a launch in March or April.

The latest Apple tablet is expected to be equipped with a  quad-core A6 processor under the hood, and a higher resolution screen measuring 2048x1536. As the transition to the iPad 3 takes place, there would be production of 14 to 15 million Apple iPad 2 units in the fall, slowing rapidly to 4 million produced in the winter. Between 9.5 to 9.8 million copies of the Apple iPad 3 are expected to be produced in the first three months of 2012. The idea is to have enough product on hand to make up for the end of the iPad 2's production life with ample units of the newer model.

While sales-wise the Apple iPad 2 has been facing competition from the low priced Amazon Kindle Fire, it will run into some competition on the high-end from the quad-core powered Asus Transformer Prime. With a detachable QWERTY keyboard, the latter should go on sale during the week of December 19th. That would give Asus a few weeks of sales before Apple counters with its own quad-core tablet.

source: DigiTimes via electronista