Thinner, Lighter 5th-generation Apple iPad is Expected to launch in March, 2013

Rumor says that US technology giant Apple plans to launch a fifth generation table in March, 2013, just five months after the launch of the fourth-generation model, in keeping with its yearly spring releases of previous models.

                 

                            

According to an inside source of the tech blog Macotakara, the new iPad will look like the iPad Mini in design and the dimensions of a slightly smaller iPad 2. It would feature the Retina display with the same resolution as the third and fourth generation iPads, the Daily Mail reported.

According to 9to5mac, Macotakara also claims some next-generation iPad dimensions: “the expectation comes to have a small 4mm in height, 17mm in width, depth 2mm.” These numbers are obviously unrealistic expectations for the fifth-generation iPad’s actual size, but these numbers would make sense in the context of being millimeters smaller in all of the iPad’s physical dimensions than the current iPad.

                   

                     

Besides the fifth-generation iPad, Apple is supposed to be getting the second-generation of the Apple iPad mini ready. And freedman says Apple is gathering parts from companies like Texas Instruments for the new iPad Mini.

Apple seems to have cut its product cycle in half from 1 year to about 6 months. How will Apple fans respond to Cupertino pushing out a new model twice a year? In a way, it makes sense since Apple has to compete against a number of Android manufacturers who churn out new, updated products constantly.