Apple is Building New ARM SoC In-House, Possibly for iPad 3

From DailyTech: Apple, Inc. (AAPL) announced the original iPad in January 2010, and it hit the market in April 2010. The polished device was undeniably a game-changing product that turned an often-overlooked niche (tablets) into a booming market. It was about this time last year that Apple sent out its occasions to a special event. That event -- on March 1 -- turned out to be late Apple CEO and co-founder Steven P. Jobs' last major product announcement -- the iPad 2.

The iPad 3 has been semi-confirmed to have a "Retina" display made by LG Display Comp., Ltd. (KS:034220) (sister company to LG Electronics Inc. (KS:066570)). A report in The Korean Times quotes LG Display CEO Young Soo Kwon as confirming that Retina-display iPads are in production. The publication writes, "[Kwon] said more smartphone manufacturers will release new models employing LG’s “Retina Display’’ that has been used in iPhones and iPads."

The Retina display doubles the pixels, complete with a full three subpixels per pixel (the proper amount). In an iPhone this works out to a 960x640 resolution (336 ppi). On the new iPad 3 this will likely work out to 2048x1536 (264 ppi), assuming the aspect ratio doesn't change.

The Retina display was not an Apple idea, but wholly an LG Display idea (it's even coming to Android phones). The idea was to create a display that was at the maximum resolution scale of the human retina at 12-inches, a common distance for smartphone use/navigation.

New juicy details emerged three weeks ago when DigiTimes reported that the iPad 3 would fall under two models -- model numbers are J1 and J2 (iPad3,1 and iPad3,2). While this is to be expected (Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi+Cell modem) the exciting news was that Apple was throwing in an LTE modem -- a first for any Apple device to date.

DigiTimes claims that Apple's final solution for LTE is simply to put in a huge battery, bumping the LTE model from 6,500 mAh to 14,000 mAh. The publication indicates price will remain constant.

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