# iPad 3 rumors = iPad 1/iPad 2 price drop?



## Sticks and Stones (Jan 5, 2012)

Hey everyone,

I've been looking forward to receiving an iPad for my birthday in early March, when I started hearing rumors that an iPad, (the iPad 3 to be exact,) is due to be released around the same time. While I am not particularly interested in buying an iPad _3_, I was wondering what to expect as far as price drops go, for the iPad 1 & 2.

I've had my eye on a refurbished iPad 1st generation 64g with wifi only. But I've been hearing a few good things about the iPad 2. I was wondering how significant a drop in price might be, whether it would bring the iPad 2 closer to my range, and also, whether it would lower the already significantly lowered price of the iPad 1.

I'm also concerned that the early March that is predicted as a release date would be after the "early March" of my birthday, and I was wondering whether it would be worthwhile to wait, if it did indeed happen to fall after my birthday.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance. 

P.S. My price range is no more than mid 400s.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

I wouldn't pay much attention to rumors. They're almost always wrong. Everything is up in the air as far as 3rd gen iPads.

Almost everybody was positive a 5th gen iPod touch was coming out last September, since they are "always" updated in September. We're still waiting. I gave up and upgraded from a 2nd gen to a 4th gen one.

Mike


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

There will almost definitely be an iPad 3 out around March Apple generally sticks with a yearly update cycle.  But as jmiked noted, that's not always the case.

Prices on iPad 2's will definitely drop at that time.  The only question is whether they keep the iPad 2 around at a lower price to compete with lower priced tablets as rumored, or if they're just discounted to clear stock before the iPad 3 is out (like they did with the iPad 1 when the iPad 2 came out).

I'm guessing they'll keep it around, and that the iPad 3 will just have a better screen, better cameras etc. for people who need/want that, and the iPad 2 will be for more casual tablet users who don't need an HD screen or higher megapixel camera's etc.

But only time will tell!


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Looks like the iPad 3 will be revealed the first week of March.

http://allthingsd.com/20120209/apple-to-announce-ipad-3-first-week-in-march/


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## Broadus (Nov 29, 2010)

I would have been perfectly happy with a first or second generation iPad if they had had the rumored screen resolution of the iPad 3. Having a Retina-like display will make reading on the iPad a more enjoyable experience, if my guess is right. I like how fonts are so crisp on my iPhone 4S. At any rate, that's why I've held out, and March should tell the tale.


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## geko29 (Dec 23, 2008)

Broadus said:


> I would have been perfectly happy with a first or second generation iPad if they had had the rumored screen resolution of the iPad 3.


As an owner of both gens (and being responsible for the support of dozens of each), I'll agree with you on the 2nd gen, and disagree on the first. The original iPad just doesn't have enough RAM. Apps crash CONSTANTLY, and it requires frequent (relative to the 2nd gen, which requires one almost never) reboots. Diagnostic logs sent to Apple are mostly of the LowMemory and .crash variety, to the tune of several dozen per day. While these types of logs are generated occasionally on the iPad2 (a few .crash files per week, mostly with the same few apps that have their own problems; 2-4 LowMemory files per day), it's not to the extent that signifies a problem. I have one user whose iPad1 generated 848 crashdumps in 16 days. My iPad2 has generated 173 in 9 months.

1GB would be great, and is what I'm hoping is in iPad3, but the 512MB in iPad2 is sufficient. The 256MB in the iPad is not.


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## Broadus (Nov 29, 2010)

geko29 said:


> As an owner of both gens (and being responsible for the support of dozens of each), I'll agree with you on the 2nd gen, and disagree on the first. The original iPad just doesn't have enough RAM. Apps crash CONSTANTLY, and it requires frequent (relative to the 2nd gen, which requires one almost never) reboots. Diagnostic logs sent to Apple are mostly of the LowMemory and .crash variety, to the tune of several dozen per day. While these types of logs are generated occasionally on the iPad2 (a few .crash files per week, mostly with the same few apps that have their own problems; 2-4 LowMemory files per day), it's not to the extent that signifies a problem. I have one user whose iPad1 generated 848 crashdumps in 16 days. My iPad2 has generated 173 in 9 months.
> 
> 1GB would be great, and is what I'm hoping is in iPad3, but the 512MB in iPad2 is sufficient. The 256MB in the iPad is not.


Thanks for the info. I had no idea about those problems with the 1st generation iPad.


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## rho (Feb 12, 2009)

geko29 said:


> As an owner of both gens (and being responsible for the support of dozens of each), I'll agree with you on the 2nd gen, and disagree on the first. The original iPad just doesn't have enough RAM. Apps crash CONSTANTLY, and it requires frequent (relative to the 2nd gen, which requires one almost never) reboots. Diagnostic logs sent to Apple are mostly of the LowMemory and .crash variety, to the tune of several dozen per day. While these types of logs are generated occasionally on the iPad2 (a few .crash files per week, mostly with the same few apps that have their own problems; 2-4 LowMemory files per day), it's not to the extent that signifies a problem. I have one user whose iPad1 generated 848 crashdumps in 16 days. My iPad2 has generated 173 in 9 months.
> 
> 1GB would be great, and is what I'm hoping is in iPad3, but the 512MB in iPad2 is sufficient. The 256MB in the iPad is not.


The crashes are REALLY starting to get to me with my iPad 1 -- hoping for a big change for the 3 then I would go for it and give hubs this one to use while he is traveling (would have much less on it for those occasions so should be fine)


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

geko29 said:


> The original iPad just doesn't have enough RAM. Apps crash CONSTANTLY, and it requires frequent (relative to the 2nd gen, which requires one almost never) reboots.


That's been close to my experience, also. I have two apps on my 1st gen iPad that crash frequently because of what I believe to be low memory situations. i have to manually force quit background apps in order to get them to restart. I wouldn't recommend that anybody get a 1st gen iPad.

Mike


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## Sticks and Stones (Jan 5, 2012)

Is the iPad 1st generation really that bad? Because I've been saving for one for awhile now, and I was looking to buying the iPad 1 64g, at $400+

The only iPad 2 I could afford would be the 16g version, which wouldn't really work for me as I have a lot of content I would want to store on the device.


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## gadgetgirl003 (Mar 22, 2009)

Sticks and Stones said:


> Is the iPad 1st generation really that bad? Because I've been saving for one for awhile now, and I was looking to buying the iPad 1 64g, at $400+
> 
> The only iPad 2 I could afford would be the 16g version, which wouldn't really work for me as I have a lot of content I would want to store on the device.


I have a first generation 32G 3G iPad and I am very happy with it. I have not had a problem with it crashing on me like some of the other posters in this thread have. Many of us on Kindleboards have first generation iPads and are very happy with them.


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## planet_janet (Feb 23, 2010)

I also have a 32gb iPad 1 and am very happy with it.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

gadgetgirl003 said:


> Many of us on Kindleboards have first generation iPads and are very happy with them.


I'm probably stressing the thing out more than most others. I have 70+ apps on a 64 gigabyte iPad, including several that take most of the available memory. Unfortunately those are the two apps I use most frequently: NYT Crosswords and Pulse (a blog reading app).

Not to mention the 4,000+ pictures and 200+ CDs.

It's still better at memory management than my Android phone. 

Mike


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Yeah, it just depends on what you're doing with it.  If you have very basic uses like web surfing, e-mail, reading e-books etc., then you won't crash an iPad 1 much.

If you're playing games, watching a lot of streaming video, using audio or video editing apps and generally using more memory hungry apps you'll have more issues.  Though there are some things, like Pulse news mentioned above, that don't seem like they'd use a lot of memory but do.  So you have to watch out for those non-obvious memory hogs.


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## planet_janet (Feb 23, 2010)

Yeah, good point.  I do pretty basic stuff (mainly surf, email, read magazines and such) with my iPad and don't even stream movies very often anymore.  I have loads of apps, but most of them are kids' stuff and nothing that hogs a lot of memory.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

I owned the iPad 1 and iPad 2. I found the original version much more stable than the reports here would imply, BUT I also never tried using mine for high-end games very often.

For me, the big advantage of the iPad 2 is the additional memory and to a lesser extent the processing speed. These make web browsing (which I do a lot via wifi connection) MUCH faster, and minimize reloading pages when you switch between screens. Much more satisfactory, I've gotten my money out of the iPad 2 even though I originally didn't intend to get one (I self-enabled on this one).

The iPad 2 is thinner, I didn't think this would be a big deal, but now an iPad 1 seems clunky when I handle it. The iPad 2 has a cool cover available that fires up your iPad when you open the cover. Sounds minor, but I like it, combined with the faster startup from the faster processor it makes the iPad 2 feel like it is always on and waiting for you.

My experience with most everything that has a CPU chip in it is that (leaving out extreme bleeding edge stuff) I'm sometimes sorry that I saved a few bucks and bought something slower that became obsolescent quickly, but I've never been sorry I bought a faster processor (with the proviso that on desktop computers I have never been tempted by extreme gaming machines and such).

There are many suggestions that Apple may start a process similar to what they do with iPhones by keeping the iPad 2 in production as a lower-end alternative to a new iPad 3. If that works for you, and the price drops enough for you to grab a 32gig ipad, I'd consider the iPad 2. I'd avoid the iPad 1 unless you are really convinced that you won't do much that's demanding in terms of memory and processing--An iPad 1 would probably still be fine for listening to music and watching movies stored on the device, for instance.

For expanded memory, I have one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Satellite-Wireless-External-STBF500101/dp/B004Z0S7K6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329370604&sr=8-1

and am happy with it. If you think it might work for you, you might get an iPad with minimal memory and add a one of these wireless external hard drives if lack of memory did prove to be a problem, and when you got the money.

This is another option:

http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Wi-Drive-External-WID-16GBZ/dp/B00576APBQ/ref=pd_cp_e_0

This is a cheap way to add sixteen gig, and it is very small (smaller than the Seagate I mentioned above). I haven't used this, though. There's also a more expensive 32gb version of the Kingston.


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## gamblingxpert (Feb 16, 2012)

I love my Ipad and i want trade him for ipad 2 or ipad 3...i'm happy with what i have.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/28/apple-ipad-event-confirmed-for-march-7th-in-san-francisco/

Apple has confirmed that the March 7th conference is to announce a new, more powerful iPad.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

mooshie78 said:


> Yeah, it just depends on what you're doing with it. If you have very basic uses like web surfing, e-mail, reading e-books etc., then you won't crash an iPad 1 much.
> 
> If you're playing games, watching a lot of streaming video, using audio or video editing apps and generally using more memory hungry apps you'll have more issues. Though there are some things, like Pulse news mentioned above, that don't seem like they'd use a lot of memory but do. So you have to watch out for those non-obvious memory hogs.


I get tens of crashes with Safari every day on my 64GB WiFi iPad 1. That's the only one that gets that many crashes, and I've only recently started getting some reboots. And I only got the crashes on Safari with the upgrade to 5.0.

I will probably look at getting an iPad2, as I would like the camera (which I didn't think I would) and the ability to output to an external screen. Hoping I can pick up one from someone who wants to sell theirs to get an iPad3. 

Betsy


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## skyblue (Dec 23, 2009)

I think the crashes for iPad 1 are due to the 5.0 upgrade.


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## KindleGirl (Nov 11, 2008)

skyblue said:


> I think the crashes for iPad 1 are due to the 5.0 upgrade.


Yep, I agree. I NEVER had any crashes until I updated to 5.0.


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## gadgetgirl003 (Mar 22, 2009)

skyblue said:


> I think the crashes for iPad 1 are due to the 5.0 upgrade.


I guess that explains why I am so content with my iPad 1. I haven't upgraded to 5.0.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Shame it is causing problems as 5.0 was a nice upgrade.


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

I'm planning on getting the new one and handing down my iPad to my 13 yo son


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## rho (Feb 12, 2009)

I'm planning on getting the new one and handing this on over to hubs... I can delete most of the things on it for him and it should be fine for when he travels ....


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## J H Bogran (Jul 19, 2011)

The thing I hate the most about updating the ipad software is that if deletes ALL that is in there: all the music that I painstakingly copied from my library and made into little playlists saved on the ipad only. I had not learned the trick to save the pl on the PC. Duh! 

But other than that, I'm pretty happy with my Ipad 2. I've had it since last July when my kids forced me to buy it (Although "forced" is a term they would complain since it was I who took them to the store on the first place.   ). 

An ipod 3 with a size similar to the kindle fire would be a nice improvement. I've even heard of it being referred to as the "mini-ipad." Why it is not called the "large ipod" is beyond me.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

The update to iOS5 is the last one that will do that.  Now it does piecemeal updates via wifi where it just updates what needs updating

There are some rumors that an iPad mini will be announced.  Personally, I have no interest in a smaller screen as I do a lot of PDF document reading on mine and even the 9.7" screen is a tad too small sometimes.  But it would be smart of them to put one out for people who don't need a big screen and want a cheaper and more portable option.


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## rho (Feb 12, 2009)

So does anyone know if we can watch this annoucement online tomorrow?


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/07/apple-drops-ipad-2-price-to-399/

Ipad 2 dropping to $399 for 16GB Wifi only model, and will keep selling it alongside the new model.


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## J H Bogran (Jul 19, 2011)

mooshie78 said:


> http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/07/apple-drops-ipad-2-price-to-399/
> 
> Ipad 2 dropping to $399 for 16GB Wifi only model, and will keep selling it alongside the new model.


Typical. Would I get a reimbursement for the extra $200 I paid for my ipad2? I think not.


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## Broadus (Nov 29, 2010)

J H Bogran said:


> Typical. Would I get a reimbursement for the extra $200 I paid for my ipad2? I think not.


What do you mean by "typical"? Also, isn't this a $100 drop, not $200?


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## J H Bogran (Jul 19, 2011)

It's typical that every time a new model is released, the old one gets a price cut. 

Because I bought mine on a distributor store outside of the U.S. and not directly from Apple, I paid around $560 for my ipad2. 

My comments were meant to be funny. Maybe they were not.  

I'm happy with mine and not planning to change soon.


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## Broadus (Nov 29, 2010)

J H Bogran said:


> It's typical that every time a new model is released, the old one gets a price cut.
> 
> Because I bought mine on a distributor store outside of the U.S. and not directly from Apple, I paid around $560 for my ipad2.
> 
> ...


Thanks for clarifying. I'm glad you're happy with yours.

Frankly, I'll be glad when the tablet market gets to a leveling off period as far as innovation goes. I have a two and a half year old Lenovo ThinkPad T500 notebook and haven't considered replacing it. If I spend $500 or more for a tech device, I need to keep it for a few years. As much as I love the prospect of the resolution in the latest iteration of the iPad, if I had an iPad 2, I suspect I would pass on the latest one.


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

Yeah, I think the price of the iPad should preclude annual updates for most people.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Yeah, there's no need for most people to upgrade every year.  Or even every other year.  The upgrades are nice, but most people probably have fairly simple Tablet needs and don't need the latest and greatest model.  The may want it, but they probably don't need it. 

I figure I'll upgrade every 2-3 years--or when the battery starts not holding a charge as long.


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