We loved Mac Magazine’s previous mockups of what they thought the iPhone 5 would look like, but I think their concepts of the rumored October addition to the iPad family — the Retina Display packing iPad 2+, otherwise known as the iPad 3 and the iPad HD — is even better.
Fantastic work: it looks exactly like a pro-level update to the current iPad, instead of a whole new design. What do you think?
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
33 responses to “Is This What The iPad 3 / iPad 2 HD Will Look Like? [Gallery]”
The next iPad won’t look anything like this because…
“The iPad 2 really is defined by it’s display, by reducing what was essentially three surfaces to two. We got rid of the structural wall around the perimeter of the product, and eliminated the edge. It’s not only more comfortable to hold but with the breakthrough’s we’ve made with unibody engineering its rigid, sturdy and even more precise.” -Jony Ive
I’d buy that!!
I like these, but as others have pointed out they are not likely to be close to what the next iPad will look like. It’s also very very unlikely that an iPad HD will show up at all.
Glass? Thinner? F. that! Even iPad 2 is too thin. And with a glass back, it’ll be too heavy and breakable.
A glass back would destroy the durability factor. But, the other features would be welcomed, especially the HD camera(s), camera flash, and retina display.
If they are going to use those metal bands, just for look or for antennas they will go for a flat design, like the iPhone 4 at least for the sides if not the back where the rounded shape works better than flat on a device of that size.
I love my iPad 2 but are we heading for Emperor’s New Clothes territory here? Steve Jobs keynote for iPad 5 ” This is the most magical device we have ever made, it’s so thin you can’t see it, it’s so light you won’t even think you are holding anything…”
Well those pictures do have rounded sides.
Personally I’d love to see them have flat side again as I actually thought that was more comfortable to hold, also it’s better for the connectors and the speaker (and for cases in a way since they now all have ugly cutouts for the speaker).
But they’ll probably never do that again as the rounded back feels better than a flat one on a device of that size, having both a rounded back and flat sides would mean it would get thicker which would in turn lead to an outrage for some stupid reason.
People for some reason want devices to get even thinner than they already are, I can’t see why, look at the second gen iPod touch (guess it applies to the even thinner fourth generation), it’s uncomfortable to hold and use without a cover, at least for me, and it’s not like i have large hands or anything, rather small if anything.
Agreed, I don’t get why people are so obsessed about thinner devices, sure, it’s nice with thin devices, but not when they get so think they are uncomfortable to hold. For me the iPhone 4 is just about perfect, the first iPads formfactor (I don’t like the rounded sides of the second) and thickness is much better than the second and the iPod touch needs a case around it to feel good in the hand…
Exactly. Another unlikely hood for this product is the fact that Apple created a smart cover JUST because they thought the glass on the front needed further protection for lugging it around. So clearly Apple is not going to re-iterate glass onto the back of a device that needs the structural befits of aluminum [metal]. I think they get away with glass in products like the iPhone because if anything it makes the product look more fragile, and high class so people will also turn to the durability of a [metal] iPod instead of the integrated iPod in iOS. I think Apples going to continue using glass and aluminum integration in the way it more recently has until at least late 2012 or 2013.
anyone else think the fact the speaker(s) is / will be at the bottom is a serious design flaw? ie: when you’re in bed with the iPad resting on you the sound is muffled…. Often I hold it the wrong way up just to solve this problem…. anyone else thinks the same?
Is thinner necessary? Not sure, but lighter is always welcome.
It’s reasonable to think elements of the Macbook Air and iPhone 4 might be in there – that’s how Apple tests their product features, after all. So an iPhone 4 profile isn’t out of the picture.
Answer to the headline question: no.
Didn’t we agree that we don’t like glass backs?
http://msgui.vilabol.uol.com.b…
360º animation
The usual idea is that you would use NFC to set up the link between the two devices and then do an automatic hand over to a different protocol for doing the actual transfer of data – eg Bluetooth,iphone 5
Hey yeah black…. I want one now!!!!! I won’t even buy anything from apple till this comes out because I am like that b.
I love thin, i want it too definitely be thinner. Why make is so bulky. I swear i will cream my pants if it is a glassed back and thin. That will be awesome yo……
oh yeah o h yeah come on come on bring it baby bring it bring it shaw mawn babe oh yeah babe oh yeah come on.
I want to make a hip hop song about it ngga.
I am so in love with apple. that is all i think about always. I spend my days lost in apple news and products. I am an apple freak. I even think SJ was cute too, even though everyone says he was ugly little skinny jew.
Hey, that is why everything is going so thin, steve was so friggin thin.
Oh yeah babe, hell ya mama, oh yeah poonie