I suspect the driver for the new full-size iPad is the lightning connector. Now all of the iOS devices (except the iPad 2?) use it.

Additionally the A5x was a really expensive chip to produce. It didn't have the graphics power to drive the retina screen so they just threw silicon at it. It had twice the die size as the Tegra 3:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5685/apple-a5x-die-size-measur...

My money is on them shipping it pretty much for the Lightning connector and beefing the specs up to at least make it look like an upgrade.

that's my guess as well.

I'm not sure how it aligns with previous launches, but I imagined they were going to discontinue the 2 as well.

I have the current (err, previous!) gen iPad. I don't particularly care that there are new models. I'm still happy with mine, and don't have any plans on buying the new one.

Why do you think this would make someone upset?

I was watching a CNet livestream where the commentators were absolutely livid about the announcement. I don't have a tablet of any kind so don't feel strongly either way, I was just curious if their anger was felt by others.

It doesn't seem that it is.

That’s completely irrational. Being livid about something like that makes exactly zero rational sense.

It would had Apple withheld stuff on previous models, but it doesn’t look like they did.

The 4th gen is just an incremental push on components the 3rd gen. It seems like Apple is staggering products with their processor releases to let them accelerate that tick-tock for phones and tablets.

I think maybe they just wanted to turn the line over to the new dock faster so this year they went with 2 releases.

I'm unhappy that my iPad 1 is essential on it's way to brickdom.

I had bought it planning to pass it on to my toddlers as it reached about 4-5 years old.

Unfortunately I don't think there will be any supported iOS 5 apps at that point.

I may have to jailbreak it just to get a newer version of the OS on it at some point (assuming that someone gets the newer OS working on it).

Never buy the first version of any new product.

Are you upset when a car manufacturer releases a new model every year? I love that you can buy the 2013 model of a car in ~September 2012.

Jeep are taking that to a new level.. In Jan 2013 they are going to begin selling the 2014 Grand Cherokee..

(I realize the gap from iPad3->iPad 4 was less than a year, but that happens in the car market too)

Except that Jeep 2013 won't be totally useless by 2017.

It was just a minor bump so they can speed along the painful transition to the Lightning connector ASAP. No one's going to sell their iPad 3rd gen and upgrade.

I am going to upgrade my iPad 3. I mean you can sell it to Amazon for $400, and buy a new one for $500+tax. Doesn't seem like a bad deal to basically lease the iPad 3 for six months for about $120.

I guess, but the new one doesn't seem to have an advantage. At least not one worth the hassle of all that. I'll wait until a noticeable upgrade.