Apple preps CDMA-GSM 'World iPad'?
Plus skinniness and video chat
Apple is rumored to be readying a next-generation "World iPad" that works on both GSM and CDMA networks, presumably in the hope of blanketing the world with a new version of its magical and revolutionary device.
"Apple is going to be ratcheting down production of the existing 3G iPad over the next two months in anticipation of ramping up a new World iPad that is powered by Qualcomm and will run on both GSM and CDMA based networks around the world," Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair is quoted by All Things Digital as saying.
This latest rumor comes on the heels of a flood of speculation concerning an upcoming CDMA iPhone, not only for the number-one US carrier Verizon, but also for Chinese CDMA carrier China Telecom and others.
CDMA, we hasten to point out, is a dead-end 3G standard, with limited installations of its most-recent revision, EVDO Rev B. Most carriers are putting their upgrade eggs into the LTE 4G basket.
Blair also says that the new "World iPad" will be thinner than Apple's first-generation hefty slablet, and have a front-facing camera, presumably to support Apple's FaceTime capability for the iPhone, iPod touch, and — in beta — for the Mac.
In addition, Blair says, "We understand it requires a new type of manufacturing process as a result, similar to the company's unibody approach seen in MacBooks."
Or someday, perhaps, with a carbon fiber body as detailed in a patent filing published Thursday. ®
COMMENTS
BORING...
Blah, blah, blah, Lemon. Blah, blah, blah, Lemon. Man, you are obsessed and really, **really** dull! Let it go. It's *still* as h handset selling **more** than any single Android based handset!
bloody journos
will you stop saying "magical and revolutionary device" everytime you bang on about this brick, FFS.
The iPad is already made using the unibody approach
whereby the whole chassis is CNC-milled from a single piece of aluminium: in the iPad it forms the back of the machine, in Macbooks it forms the top, but that's the only difference.
iPap
I hereby claim the word "iPap"
It means iPad App that you buy but never really use.
So that's most of them, then.
Cheap parts
I think the reason we are seeing this is that it is getting easier to get radio modules that have both CDMA and GSM. If the part is the same size as older versions and cheap enough, why not have a iPad/iPhone that can do it all.
