Det verkar vara exakt den teorin Gruber har (se nedan), så jag var rätt ute trots allt. Inte för jag brukar vara fel ute
Apple doesn’t announce much about what they’re going to do in the future. But, they’ve become a very predictable company regarding the schedule for new hardware — at least in the consumer space. New iPods come in the fall, at an event in September, timed to hit full production for the holiday season. New iPhones are announced at WWDC in June and ship soon thereafter.
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So where does the iPad fit in? Last year’s iPad was announced early, in late January, and went on sale at the beginning of April. Apple was willing to announce it months in advance because they had no competition, and because they wanted to give iPhone developers time to write native iPad apps. The lack of competition was why they were willing to pre-announce the original iPhone by six months, as well.
Now that the iPad is out, though, I don’t expect to see new hardware revisions pre-announced — at least not by more than a handful of weeks. Overall, I think the iPad fits most naturally into the same schedule as the iPods: where new hardware is announced and ships in September. The iPad was a massive hit during this past holiday season.
I don’t think April is a particularly good month for an annual iPad release. I don’t think it’s a particularly bad month, either, but it doesn’t make as much sense as September. April is four months into the new year, but still feels like “early” in the year. That leads to whispers and rumors during the holiday season that people should wait. Shipping new hardware in April adds another milestone to the iOS release schedule, too.
Thus, my gut feeling is that Apple will move the iPad to a September release schedule, alongside the iPods. But they wouldn’t want to wait over a year and a half from the announcement of the original iPad to announce the second one — not with these stakes, and not with so many serious competitors trying their best to catch up.
