It was widely expected that customers – in the U.S. at least – wishing to get their hands on a next-generation iPad would be able to do so in April but new claims have now thrown this into doubt.
However, Bloomberg is reporting that analysts at Yuanta Securities has learned of production bottlenecks at manufacturing firm Hon Hai Precision Industry Company which will delay the iPad 2 until June at least.
The delay, according to the report from Yuanta analysts Vincent Chen and Alison Chen, was caused by unspecified last-minute design changes made by Apple. Neither Apple of Hon Hai have commented on the report.
Earlier this month, reports originating in the Wall Street Journal claimed that the iPad 2 was already in production.
Speculation about the features the iPad 2 will include has been rife for months – just this week reports that Intel’s Light Peak technology could be built in to the device emerged.
One of the main themes of iPad 2 rumours has surrounded the screen – will there be an increase in resolution, or even a ‘retina’ display?
Many of the rumours have been heard so many times that they are now accepted as fact though one source of concern for the rumour mongers is why exactly no official iPad 2 announcement has been made yet.
It is also thought that the iPad 2 won’t actually launch outside of the US until July anyway, so if the reports of production delays are truw, it’ll be interesting to see when the iPad 2 makes it to international markets.
However, it seems that there has been so much speculation about the iPad 2 that many have bored of it already and moved on to speculating about the iPad 3. Earlier this week, rumours suggested that there could be a mid-sized iPad planned, somewhere between an iPad mini or an iPod touch jumbo.
