Report: September iPad HD will Augment iPad Line

Apple will indeed be releasing a new iPad in September, according to a report from This Is My Next, but it will be called “iPad HD,” and that it will augment Apple’s tablet product line, not replace the recenty introduced iPad 2. The device will sport a much higher resolution screen of 2048 x 1536, and will be aimed at professional users.

This Is My Next is a new publication from Joshua Topolsky and other writers who have previously worked for Engadget and assorted tech publications. The report is pitched as a continuation of other reports about Apple’s iPhone line that have been written by Mr. Topolsky for Engadget.

As part of its “pro” stature, the iPad HD might be accompanied by iPad versions of Aperture or Final Cut Pro that work on the higher-end version of the device, but the key part of the story is that the much-rumored September release of an iPad is intended to expand the platform, and not merely bump up the device’s specs.

If you remember, there was a rumor from DigiTimes in January of of 2011 that the iPad 2 itself would ship with a 2048 x 1536 resolution (at the time, we called it “twice” the iPad’s current resolution just like This Is My Next did today, and were reminded by a reader that it’s technically a 4x increase in total screen real estate). The Tawianese publication cited unnamed sources in Apple’s supply chain for the story, but when the iPad 2 shipped, it featured the original device’s 1024 x 768 resolution.

Mr. Topolsky didn’t mention the January report from DigiTimes, but it’s easy to follow the bread crumbs and think that the January leak from suppliers was based on a real product Apple was developing, but that it simply wasn’t the iPad 2.