Skip to footer

Is a 128GB 'Ultimate' Apple iPad on the way?

One new report indicates that a larger-capacity iPad could ship sometime in the next few months. 

|
Reuters
An Apple logo is reflected in the screen of a new Apple iPad at an electronics store in Mumbai in this April 27, 2012 file photograph. Word surfaced today that Apple is preparing some kind of "Ultimate iPad."
  • By Matthew Shaer

Time was when Apple released a new tablet computer every year. The original iPad was followed roughly 12 months later by the iPad 2 and a year after that came the "new iPad," otherwise known as the iPad 3. But last year, Apple upended the annual schedule, and launched the fourth-generation iPad the same year as the third-generation iPad. We say all of this as a kind of pre-amble to the news today that Apple is preparing some kind of "Ultimate iPad." 

According to 9 to 5 Mac, which cites SKUs obtained from a "high-profile US retailer," the "Ultimate iPad" may simply be a 128GB version of the current iPad – in other words, not a completely redesigned iPad, but an iPad with a colossal amount of memory. (The largest iPad currently gets "only" 64GB.)

The SKUs provided by 9 to 5 Mac show two price points: $799 and $929 – possibly the cost of the Wi-Fi-only and LTE versions. 

There are other explanations, of course, as Mark Gurman of 9 to 5 Mac points out. For instance, Apple could be "adding a new fourth-generation iPad SKU that is specific to government agencies, retail, or for other internal uses (this is something Apple has done before with other product lines). It is also possible that this model includes a feature (or features) other than 128GB of storage."

A tantalizing idea, that last one. 

Predictably, Apple isn't commenting on the rumors and no launch events are scheduled. 

Over at ZDNet, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes doesn't doubt that Apple will, at some point, release an "Ultimate iPad." But he's extremely skeptical that the device will ship anytime soon. 

"I have little doubt that a 128GB iPad is indeed in the pipeline, but that it will be a new model – perhaps the iPad 5 – and that its debut will be concurrent with the elimination of the 16GB model," Kingsley-Hughes writes. "This would allow Apple to retail the existing pricing structure for the iPads, with the 128GB model costing $699 for the Wi-Fi model, and $829 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model." 

For more tech news, follow us on Twitter: @CSMHorizonsBlog

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Is a 128GB 'Ultimate' Apple iPad on the way?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2013/0128/Is-a-128GB-Ultimate-Apple-iPad-on-the-way
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe