Fourth-gen iPad teardown shows minimal evolution

A teardown of the fourth-generation iPad shows very few differences inside or out, notes iFixit. As advertised it upgrades to a 1.4GHz A6X processor, a 1.2 megapixel front-facing camera and a Lightning connector, but many other design traits are essentially unchanged. The tablet still uses a single speaker, unlike the twin speakers in the iPad mini, and even embeds the Lightning connector in a frame the same size as the one for the third-gen iPad's 30-pin dock.<br><br>The <a href="http://macnn.com/rd/272110==http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPad+4+Teardown/11462/1" rel='nofollow'>teardown unit</a> does use an LG display, confirming that Apple is starting to turn to companies beyond Samsung for panels. Samsung is, however, likely supplying a fair share of panels, just not all of them. As before, the touchscreen controller hardware comes from Broadcom.

The fourth-gen iPad is officially launching today, alongside the iPad mini. It's unclear if or how Apple might update the full-sized iPad in the spring, as it usually does.

In 6 months, I wouldn't have expected a radical redesign. Apple can minimize the production cost by keeping as many common parts as possible between the previous iteration and the current iPad. I imagine we will see regular updates on a 6 month cycle until the tablet market matures. The big race at the moment is to be the first with 64-bit cores and a large memory footprint.

I don't imagine that and can only hope that Apple doesn't do that. I think the iPad 4 release was a one time deal to update the dock connector. I think their sales would take a serious hit of they went to a bi-annual release cycle, not to mention the absurdity of it.

That would create a support nightmare. And how could accessory makers possibly keep up, as well as keep the consumers informed about which versions of the iPad their product worked with? It doesn't make sense.