Meet the new iPad, now with Retina display! It’s a little thicker and heavier, but nobody cares about it… ? Jokes aside, it’s very rare to see Apple “going backwards” as happened with the third generation iPad. Of course, to improve on one thing, we need to sacrifice others (you win on the screen, you lose on the thickness / weight; you win on the graphics processing, you lose on the battery). It is an eternal assessment of what is worthwhile or not.
However, according to Raymond Soneira, president and CEO of DisplayMate Technologies – the person responsible for a huge (positive) evaluation of the gadget’s Retina display and with a lot of support in the area – this was not quite what Apple envisioned for its newest tablet. According to the executive, this was Apple’s “plan B”, which he hoped would be able to use Sharp’s IGZO screens, which we have already commented on here [1, 2], which possibly allowed an iPad equal to or thinner than the second generation.
In summary, IGZO technology would use smaller transistors and circuits, allowing more light to pass through, reducing the number of backlighting – consequently, making the device thinner. However, Sharp was unable to get the technology ready in time, and Apple then put “plan B” into practice, using two LED bars to handle the lighting.
Speculation or hot information? This one, I think we won’t know, but if Apple’s “plan B” was already this #EpicFAIL, imagine “plan A”…
[via CNET News]
