Apple is going to freeze the design of their soon going to be released iPad 5 and move into the production stage of the device in the month of August. Though it’s unconfirmed as of now, but there already are reports mentioning Apple would be officially launching the iPad 5 in September at an event.
If the release date of iPad 5 rumors turns out to be true, launch of the device can be expected to be end of September or early October.
Information of the probable launch date seems more authentic as iOS 7 which is to be the OS of the iPad 5 is also scheduled to be launched in the fall. The iOS 7 would be applicable for other iPad devices as well. It was October of 2012 that the iPad 4 was launched. October can also be considered to be the period when holiday planning slowly starts to take shape. As such, it makes a lot of sense for a high profile product to be launched during the period to make the maximum impact in the market.
Affirmation of the new iPad 5 release date and moving to production stage in August has also been mentioned by Mobile China Union. The report however does not give any insight into the specs of the iPad 5. Suppliers of components that are going to be used by Apple for the making of the iPad 5 also confirm the August and September dates for production and launch respectively.
The specifications of the iPad 5 is going to be different from the iPad 4 and the yet unconfirmed details as brought out by Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, indicate it to be about 15 percent thinner than the iPad 4. That is 7.5 – 8.0 mm in thickness. It would weigh 500 grams which makes it 25 percent lighter than the iPad 4. Its battery pack also would be of 8500 to 9000 mAh rating which is 25 to 30 percent smaller than the iPad 4. The display would be what we see on the iPad Mini which is based on GF2 touch technology and of 9.7 inch by size. The looks also would be like that of the iPad Mini. It would sport dual camera with the rear one of 5 MP and front being an HD camera, which is also what the iPad 4 offers now. At its core the iPad 5 tab would have an Apple A7X CPU.
DigiTimes indicates the design of the iPad 5 would be quite similar to the iPad Mini. Their speculation indicates a single LED tube being used for the iPad 5. This would lead to lesser battery power consumption. That means even though the battery pack would be smaller in size than the iPad 4, yet the battery life would be more which will be at least 10 hours.
Apple must now be preparing to make sure there is enough stock at hand, before it announces the release of the iPad 5. The company also has their iPhone 5S slated for a September release this year.