The day after a rumor circulated saying Apple would release a higher capacity iPad, the firm has officially announced a new edition of the tablet with 128GB storage memory. This doubles the amount found inside the existing top-of-the-range version, which has to struggle along with 64GB, and outdoes its close competitors by the same figure. The rest of the iPad’s specification remains unchanged.
It’ll come as no surprise that you’re going to need a healthy bank account if you want to grab one of these new models, as the Wi-Fi only 128GB iPad will cost $800 in the U.S., or £640 in the UK. If you want cellular connectivity as well, prepare to hand over $930 or £740. This represents a price increase of around $100/£80 over the 64GB iPad.
This boost in storage capacity only applies to the Retina display iPad, with the smaller iPad Mini having to make do with 64GB of memory inside its top-of-the-range tablet. However, this could all change when the baby of the iPad family receives its first model update later this year.
Giving the iPad a mid-life memory boost is an unusual move for Apple, as the new iPad has only been on sale since late last year, when it was viewed as a commercially-necessary refresh of the third-generation anyway. Its introduction certainly suggests the next generation iPad will have a choice of four different memory capacities, unless Apple decides to drop the 16GB iPad and make the 32GB the base model.
The new 128GB iPad will go on sale Tuesday, February 5, in black and white color schemes, both online and in Apple retail stores.
