iPad HD: Is Apple prepping a higher-res version of its tablet?

Apple may soon introduce a next-generation tablet called the iPad HD.

So say the good folks at This Is My Next, who report that the next Apple tablet will ship this fall, and come equipped with a 2048 x 1536-pixel resolution screen – a pretty sizable leap over the 1024 x 768-pixel resolution display on the current model iPad. Interestingly, the iPad HD is being mentioned not as a replacement for the iPad 2, but as a supplement of sorts, geared toward "pros" at the "high-end" of the market.

In other words, Apple would keep cranking out iPad 2 units, and us regular folks could continue to buy them. Meanwhile, the iPad 2 would be joined on the shelves by the iPad HD – a very tentative and very unofficial name, FYI – which would be geared toward people who work in video production, or another line of work requiring some serious HD firepower. To that end, This Is My Next thinks this iPad HD will come pre-loaded with an iPad-centric version of Final Cut or Aperture. It's an interesting idea. Is it plausible?

Well, over at Ars Technica, Chris Foresman agrees that the 2048 x 1536-pixel resolution iPad screen is probably real. But he speculates that the higher resolution screen won't arrive until next spring, when Apple unveils the iPad 3, or whatever device fully replaces the iPad 2. Foresman's reasoning is simple: He's not convinced Apple would want to "fragment" its top-selling tablet.

"[We] feel that one of the biggest improvements that would come from such a high-resolution display – sharper and easier to read text on websites, eBooks, PDFs, or digital magazines – would benefit all iPad users," Foresman writes. "Even though the iPad dominates tablet market share at this early stage, it doesn't seem wise to fragment the platform into two separate display resolutions." More when we know it.

In related news, Roger Fidler, the program director for digital publishing at Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri, recently finished polling a whole bunch of iPad owners, and he discovered an interesting trend: the longer iPad owners own their Apple tablets, the more they love them. That is "unusual for new technology devices,” Fidler said. "In most cases, satisfaction tends to drop off significantly after about 13 weeks. That clearly is not the trend with the iPad."