iPad 2 and iPhone 5 to Use Dual-Core CPUs Says Analyst

With Motorola’s upcoming Android Honeycomb tablet and Research in Motion’s imminent PlayBook both set to use new dual-core ARM processors, the iPad 2 will have make a similar jump if it is going to stay competitive according to a recent analyst note.

“Apple is on track to refresh the iPad by March and iPhone by late summer. A key component upgrade across these platforms will be a dual-core processor featuring a pair of 1GHz ARM Cortex A9 cores,” says a research note released on Thursday by Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Rodman & Renshaw.

Kumar doesn’t expect the iPad to be the only iOS device to get a dual-core upgrade next year: he also thinks the iPhone 5 (and probably next-gen iPod Touch) are a lock-in too. With the jump to dual core, it’s also possible that iOS 5.0 will focus even more on multitasking support than iOS 4 did.

In the end, Kumar sees a big a year for iPad in 2011: “iPad supply has largely satiated demand and Apple can sustain quarterly shipments at around 6 million/quarter. At these levels, Apple would capture about half the forecasted market for 2011,” Kumar wrote.

Comment »