iPad 3 Set To Start Production This October, Say Reports [No Chance Of An iPad 3 This Year, But Next Year Is Looking Like The Year Of The iPad 3]

Posted on TFTS by Steve Anderson on Thursday, 25. August 2011 under: Computers & Computing, PCs, Notebooks, Netbooks & Tablets, xFeatured

You’ve been hearing a whole lot of Apple news today, and most of it is about the departure of CEO Steve Jobs in favor of new CEO Tim Cook. Now, we’ve got a bit of news coming out around the iPad 3, and this newest bit might surprise you for a few different reasons.

The current word now suggests what we all pretty much knew: there was almost no chance of seeing an iPad 3 in time for Christmas. But, there is a fair chance you’ll see it not too long after, as production of the devices may begin as early as this October, like as in about six to ten weeks from right this second October. This in turn suggests that Apple may be getting ready to have its third iPad ready to go about the same time the second was, in March.

And further happy news: not only will Foxconn be back in the assembly role, but Apple’s got a second assembler all ready to go in the form of Pegatron, so that there will be more iPad 3 models in the pipeline at any given time than there were iPad 2 models, which means less likelihood of coming up short.

Now a strange bit of news accompanies this: the current word suggests that, where previously, Samsung was joining in the fray as a display supplier along with LG and Sharp, Samsung may be dropped from the roster entirely. This isn’t too much of a surprise, given the sheer amount of troubles that Apple and Samsung have had back and forth for months now, but it does pose some troubling issues in and of itself, especially around reports that LG and Samsung were in cahoots developing a better quality display for the iPad.

Any of these things may change, of course, as this is still early stage stuff, but it does make some sense. Another assembler to keep the numbers up, the Samsung thorn removed from Apple’s side…but what do you guys think here? Think Apple will bring out the iPad 3 in March like they did the iPad 2? Think Samsung will be involved after all? Let us know what you think down in the comments section below!