What the New iPad Says About What Might be Coming in iPad 4

The new iPad isn’t even available to the general public yet, but that won’t stop us from thinking about its successor. The new new iPad, or iPad 4, should arrive sometime in 2013 and based on what Apple has — or hasn’t — done already, we can start making predictions on a fourth iteration of the iconic device. Comments welcome …

If you didn’t know already, the new iPad has many of the same features as the iPad 2, save a new super-fast A5X CPU and a shiny retina-display. But really, these two pieces of hardware are not Apple’s crown jewels. Like the iPhone 4S, it’s a new device, designed to capture a larger percentage of the market by scooping up customers who haven’t bought an iPhone (or iPad) yet. But for everyone else, it’s a sign to keep on waiting for the iPhone 5 (or the iPad 4). Cooler stuff is coming up soon.

The iPad 4 could feature:

• Haptic Feedback: On the morning of the new iPad announcement, the Internet was buzzing with the idea that Apple may be integrating haptic feedback into the screens via technology from company Senseg. The glass of the touchscreen, when touched by your finger, produces a small electrical charge that simulates the friction and texture of something that’s on screen. Current prototypes of the technology allow a user to tell the difference between something that’s rough like sandpaper, bumpy like wood or slightly textured like a sheet of paper.
• Larger Storage: 64GB just won’t cut it anymore, especially not with that gorgeous new retina screen. Users of the new iPad likely will find many of their existing movies look pixelated, necessitating higher-quality, larger movie files. And we’ll still want all our music on the iPad, too, please. So make some more room. The move to a new 64/128/256 GB storage offering could be just the thing Apple needs to turn the iPad into your everything-pad.
• Thinner, Newer Design: Surely, Jony Ive is getting bored with the same old design. A fourth-generation iPad should certainly sport a thinner design (especially since the new iPad is technically thicker than the iPad 2). Perhaps Apple could unveil something so radically thin it’s mind-bending, similar to thinness offered by the MacBook Air’s screen. But whatever the form, it’s also possible the iPhone 5 may inspire the design aesthetic, similar to the way Apple borrowed the aluminum-backed design of the original iPhone for the iPad.

Of course, these big features, when flanked by an impressive A6 CPU, more RAM, faster wireless syncing and better  front and back cameras, will truly make the new iPad much more “new” than its predecessor. I really think Apple is looking to meet its yearly release cycles, while it holds back on the good stuff for something better. If Tim Cook’s promise is to be believed, the remainder of Apple’s product pipeline in 2012 should be highly entertaining to watch.