With another year comes another round of rumours, most specifically, about the supposed impending next iPad.

 

Already rumours have been rife about a forthcoming iPad 5, as well as an upgraded iPad mini, despite the fact that is was far less than a year since Apple introduced its current generation of each.

 

Nonetheless, the first, and to our mind, most exciting rumour is that Apple will in fact first release an upgraded iPad 4, with 128 GB of storage.

 

According to 9to5mac, the model would not be a redesign, but would rather follow the same conventions (size, weight, colours) as the current iPad 4, and would be the premium version of that tablet, in both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi and cellular models.

 

This would make it the first iPad since the tablet’s release to breach, and double, the 64 GB mark – a feature to garner a place on our wishlist for what we want to see in 2013.

 

 

However, this follows on from earlier rumours from iLounge that Apple was also planning an iPad 5 which would boast both new screen technology, while also being thinner, lighter and more compact than its predecessor, while retaining a Retina display.

 

On this front, Apple is expected to borrow some design elements from the iPad mini, as the iPad 5 will apparently have a far thinner bezel. The other rumour concerns the iPad mini itself, as the next 7.9” device is expected to receive the Retina display treatment, along with the faster processor found in the iPad 4.

 

This is the one rumour we would have readily believed when the first version was launched, as it seems like an obvious, if not inevitable, upgrade.

 

 

While the iPad 5 and next iPad mini were originally slated for an appearance as soon as March, now many are expecting that both tablets will instead make an appearance in October. If these rumours pan out, it seems logical that Apple may choose to unveil a higher capacity iPad 4 in March, and then leave the iPad 5 and iPad mini 2 till later in the year. Much like what happened to the iPad 3, the iPad 4 may then receive a price cut of its own.