March 16, 2012: Apple introduces the third-generation iPad, its first tablet to come with a Retina display. Marketed as simply “the new iPad,” it’s widely known as the “iPad 3.”
“The new iPad redefines the category Apple created less than two years ago, delivering the most amazing experience people have ever had with technology,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, in a press release. “The new iPad now has the highest resolution display ever seen on a mobile device with 3.1 million pixels, delivering razor sharp text and unbelievable detail in photos and videos.”
Boasting that beautiful screen and Apple’s then-swanky A5X chip with a quad-core graphics processor, the third-gen iPad quickly becomes a big success. Disappointingly for customers, it will only hang around until October 2012. That’s the shortest lifespan of any iOS product in history, at just seven months.
iPad 3 brings a Retina display to remember
The arrival of the Retina display in the iPad 3 proved great for buyers, who enjoyed astonishingly crisp visuals on the new tablet’s 9.7-inch screen. Apple introduced the Retina display with the iPhone 4 in mid-2010, making its arrival on the iPad both inevitable and highly anticipated.
In fact, the iPad 3’s 264 pixels per inch was a lower density than on the iPhone. However, users typically hold iPads further away from their eyes than iPhones. That meant Apple could stick with its “Retina” marketing term.
The new tablet also supported some pretty great features. Hardware improvements included a 5-megapixel camera, HD 1080p video recording (with software-based image stabilization), dictation and support for LTE networks in North America.
In the marketplace, the device did very well, selling 3 million units in its first three days. This represented the pinnacle of Apple’s dominance of the tablet market. Apple manufactured more than 60% of all tablets bought during Q2 2012 worldwide. By contrast, Apple captures 52% of the global market in 2025, according to StatCounter.
iPad 3 disappointments
Not everything about the iPad 3 met with universal acclaim, however. The original iPad became the fastest-selling new product in Apple history, and the second one improved on that.
The iPad 3 marked the first time Apple faced an issue it continues to grapple with: How do you make a new iPad compelling each and every year?
Some reviews took on the almost begrudging tone you see with modern iPhone reviews. The reviewer knows the new device is slightly better than its direct predecessor. For that reason, they can’t award the new model a lower mark. However, they struggle to get too excited about it. The iPad 3 was evolutionary, not revolutionary.
At the time of its launch, some customers expressed disappointment that the iPad 3 measured thicker than its predecessor. (Otherwise, it stuck almost exactly to the design of the second-gen iPad.) The fact that it didn’t come with an A6 chip, as had been heavily rumored, was also a bit of a letdown.
No Siri for you
The biggest criticism of all? Apple’s AI assistant Siri didn’t make it onto the device, despite having been marketed as a big selling point of 2011’s iPhone 4s. The third-gen iPad arrived just a handful of months after Steve Jobs’ death, so every Apple product was being scrutinized to draw out larger points about new CEO Tim Cook‘s approach to fresh products.
Ultimately, the greatest disappointment with the iPad 3 was just how short a lifespan it had. Apple debuted the fourth-gen iPad just 221 days after the iPad 3 went on sale. The iPad 4 added the Lightning connector (making the iPad 3 the last iPad to support the old 30-pin dock connector), and featured Apple’s new A6X chip.
Did you own an iPad 3? What are your memories of it? Leave your comments below.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
6 responses to “Today in Apple history: iPad gets an eye-dazzling Retina display”
This was my first iPad and I remember it very very well! It was so amazing so stunning.
I still own an iPad3 and it’s my only tablet. I love the Retina display and since it functions just as good now as it did when I bought it, I have no compelling reason to upgrade. It’s primary use for me is media consumption. I read on it a lot and occasionally watch Netflix.
Yup, my iPad3 still going strong and I don’t see any reason yet to replace it. Apple was too successful with the iPad, people cling to their iPads far longer than anyone expected. I suspect for most people, that space between a smartphone and a PC consists of a very narrow set of functions that Apple filled as far back as the iPad3. Is it a failed product? No, but it isn’t the device that supplants the smartphone. I have no realistic idea what the next mega-product after the smartphone is. I can’t even imagine it, and by all indications nobody else can either. Not even Apple.
Same here, my iPad 3 is still going strong, although it is quite slow now to do anything productive at all. It’s even struggling to load some websites. I’ll upgrade to the next model.
I still have my iPad three. But I use it as rarely as I can because it is so very heavy. I now own an iPad Pro 9.7 and it is so much lighter I can carry it around all day as opposed to the iPad 3. I still think the weight of that iPad 3 is one of the things that caused ganglion cysts in my wrist.
Siri did eventually come to the iPad 3. However, I think that one of the reasons why iPad 3 was so quickly displaced by iPad four is that the processor chip just was not powerful enough to support that retina display. I was disappointed for it to be displaced so quickly , and I really thought that as an act of goodwill in the upgrade cycle Apple should have given iPad 3 owners a discount on some upgrade either the iPad four, the Airs, or the new 9.7 pro. They knew they had done us wrong.
Yeah, these old iPads were built like tanks. I have an OG iPad that I have loaded with tons of great games and educational apps that our 3-year old uses all the time. It’s survived 3 boys, in fact. It’s been dropped, thrown, sneezed on, drooled on, you name it and still works great. We homeschool and the older two boys both have newer iPad Airs (iPads Air?) that we use with school apps. We felt like we needed the newer iOS for newer apps, but for the little one, the old OG iPad still works great.