This is pretty mystifying. 9to5Mac has done some more digging around in the latest iOS 4.3 SDK and found some references to the type of camera sensor the iPad 2 will have. Surprisingly, though, it’s not the 5MP sensor found in the iPhone 4, but instead a much lower resolution camera, most similar to the one in the iPod Touch.
Found in the AVCaptureSession.plist file within the K94 directory is mention of a “Back Facing 1MP Photo” string. K94 is rumored to be the iPad 2’s internal codename.
It’s curious that Apple would chose to go with so few megapixels for the iPad 2. In the latest iPod Touch’s case, the decision to go with a smaller megapixel camera had everything to do with the thinness of the device: the iPod Touch is simply two svelte to fit the iPhone 4’s camera modules into, but with a 0.7MP camera module, they just fit. The iPad 2 is a far thicker device than the iPod Touch, though.
Is Apple just trying to save some money here? Do they not think people will use the iPad 2’s rear camera very much because of the unwieldiness of the tablet form factor? Or, like the iPod Touch, is this an issue of physical footprint?
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.
