Apple May be Planning Macworld|iWorld iPad Announcement

Parts suppliers claim Apple will unveil two new iPad models on January 26, 2012 at the Macworld|iWorld Conference and Expo in San Francisco — an event that Apple hasn’t attended for years.

The anonymous sources from the parts supply chain told DigiTimes the new iPad models will stick with the 9.7-inch display size found on the iPad and iPad 2, although they sport a higher resolution at 1536 x 2048 with dual LED light bars for a sharper and brighter image, and a quad-core A6 processor.

Apparently the new iPad models will sport a 5 megapixel camera and the other will include an 8 megapixel camera. They’ll also include new 14,000 mAh batteries for substantially longer run times.

The new iPads will be priced in line with the current iPad 2, and the iPad 2 will get a price cut to compete with Amazon’s Kindle Fire media reader tablet.

While the specs on the rumored new iPads sound nice, the alleged timing of their unveiling feels dubious at best. Apple stopped planning product announcements around conferences and expos some time ago and hasn’t attended Macworld Expo (now Macworld|iWorld) for a few years.

It’s no secret that Apple is always working on new products, although the company rolls them out on its own schedule in a way that lets it best control the product message. There isn’t anything preventing Apple from hosting a media event that coincides with the Macworld|iWorld event, but it seems more likely the company would invite journalists to an event sometime after the conference wraps up.

For now, the Macworld|iWorld iPad feels like a thin rumor at best.