Apple’s Next iPad Unveiled Tomorrow, Here’s Some Predictions About It

It’s possible some people don’t care about Apple or its products. I’m sure people like that do exist. For the vast majority of us, however, tomorrow is sure to be a magical day as Apple is set to reveal the next generation of its hugely successful iPad.

The company will unveil the latest hotness at a press conference tomorrow morning in San Francisco at 10AM Pacific. As usual, Apple has keep the lid on pretty tight and tried to keep all details about the device out of the press.

However, some information has managed to leak out and we’ve got one or two sources of our own so unless something radical happens, we’ve got a pretty good idea what to expect tomorrow. Of course, it’s no fun keeping that kind of info to ourselves so we’re going to share it with you. No need to thank us.

Here’s some predictions on what to expect from the iPad 3. (Note: We’re not calling it the iPad HD and we don’t think Apple will either)

• HD  (aka “Retina”) Display — It’s pretty much a given the next iPad will at least have to match the iPhone 4’s screen quality. In fact, we think it will sport four-times as many pixels as the iPad 2. That’s 2048 x 1536 pixels in the same 9.7″ size. In other words, the display should be amazing.

• 4G LTE – We think this is a done deal. Apple will release versions of the iPad 3 for AT&T and Verizon with one for Sprint following later. The iPad 3 is a great device to help bring people into the 4G fold and help them learn to love it while Apple prepares to unveil the iPhone 5 (with 4G LTE) this Summer.

• Quad-Core Processor – Also a done deal. The processor has to be improved and the easiest way to do that is to increase clock speed or add cores. We think Apple will add cores. So, look for a quad-core A6 chip to power this new baby.

• Better battery — We think the iPad 2 has pretty great battery life. However, 4G eats up a lot of power and so will that fancy new display, so Apple will have to improve the battery to keep the iPad 3’s battery life at least on par with the ipad 2. However, we think they will do a bit better. Of course, this improved batter life has to come at some expense, which leads us to:

• Slightly Thicker Case — The extra battery power has to come from somewhere and it will probably come from a bigger battery. So, look for the iPad 3 to be a bit fatter than the iPad 2. Hey, you want improvements, or don’t you?

• Better Camera — We think Apple will include a better camera in the iPad 3. It won’t be quite as good as the one in the iPhone 4S, but it will be close. Look for something in the 6MP range with improved speed and color.

• iOS 5.1 — Another done deal. We’ve been playing with iOS 5.1 for weeks now (some of us are developers) and it will be the iOS version of choice for the new iPad 3.

Sounds pretty great so far, right? The best part is that even with all this new stuff, the iPad 3 will carry the same pricing across the board as the iPad 2 and come in various versions like the iPad 2.

We also think Apple will keep at least one version of the iPad 2 around for awhile at a reduced price to serve as an easier point of entry into the Apple ecosphere. Why not?

We’ll be monitoring the press conference live tomorrow morning to see how we did. What do you guys think? Did we miss anything?