A bit of rumor has found its way around, as analysts suggest that the next iPad will pack a dual-core processor. But the complete story on this involves a few extra twists, turns, and leaps of logic.
Analyst Ashok Kumar of Rodman & Renshaw, whom you might remember showed up out here not too long ago saying that the Macbook Air was stealing sales from the iPad, and also featured an incredible conclusion that the iPhone would be a flop back in 2007, busted out a new report today suggesting the new chip would be a part of the next iPad. Quoth the Kumar, from research notes:
“Apple is on track to refresh the iPad by March and iPhone by late summer. A key component upgrade across these platforms will be a dual-core processor featuring a pair of 1GHz ARM Cortex A9 cores.”
Just what Kumar is basing this latest shot in the dark on is anyone’s guess–the bits I’ve seen of his research notes so far don’t make that suggestion very clear–but it is still a good speculative topic to wonder where the next iPad will go in terms of tech specs. Not that this would be any match for definitive word from Apple (because Kumar’s track record is at least somewhat tarnished, according to reports), but it’s still an interesting note. It’s not as though anyone’s really been complaining, at least not that I’ve seen, about the performance of the iPad, but it does make some sense that Jobs et al will want to keep their tablet in prime operating condition. This means, necessarily, tech upgrades in terms of processor and memory and the like.
It might be a bit too much, though, to slap dual-core processors into iPads, because what would they be used for? After all, as some suggest, why write multithreading capability into, say, a $.99 app, which is a goodish portion of what the iPad is running anyway.
So I’ll put this one out to you, as I like to do when a clear course eludes me: does the iPad need some tweaking upward? What would the users get out of such an experience? Is it even worth it? Good questions all–hit the comments section and try for some answers.
