Well this is a new one. While previous reports have tipped the iPad 3 unveiling as happening on March 7 in San Francisco, CNBC is now reporting that Apple “will unveil a quad-core iPad 3 with 4G LTE technology in New York next week, according to sources.”
Rumors of a 4G LTE-enabled chipset in the iPad 3 aren’t new, but the reported New York unveiling sure is. It seems odd that Apple wouldn’t make the announcement on its own turf, but a New York-based announcement might indicate some sort of joint announcement with Verizon, which has a relatively robust 4G LTE network up and running.
This whole thing seems sketchy right now. CNBC merely cites “sources” and I’ve been watching CNBC’s cable channel for the past half hour or so, and the language has been a bit more wishy-washy about the New York angle – words like “could” and “likely” instead of using “will” as in the network’s online report.
We’ll keep an eye on everything and update this post as needed.
UPDATE (11:38AM): The Verge reports: “We’ve just checked with our own sources and can definitely say that any prospective launch event for the iPad 3 will not be taking place in New York.”
And CNBC’s on-air anchor just said, “Some reports said here in New York. We’ll see where it happens,” in reference to the launch location, which doesn’t support the language in CNBC’s initial online report very strongly at all.
And finally, CNBC’s online report has just been updated to say “Apple shares topped $530, hitting an all-time high after reports the tech giant will unveil a quad-core iPad 3 with 4G LTE technology in New York next week.” — note that “according to sources” from the previous text has disappeared.
UPDATE 2 (11:55AM):
CNBC technology correspondent Jon Fortt said the following on CNBC’s cable channel at around 11:45AM:
Fortt:
Here’s what I’ve heard and here’s what’s out there in general. What I heard that surprised me from a source is that New York is a key location for an upcoming Apple launch. Not exactly sure what that product is; of course everybody’s anticipating a new iPad…
CNBC Anchor:
So you’re saying New York may be a location but not the location, correct?
Fortt:
Yeah, gotta be very careful about how these things are phrased. There are lots of blog rumors coming in, and then I’ve heard this bit about New York for an upcoming product announcement. I don’t want to conflate the two and say that somebody told me that this thing is going to be called the iPad 3 and that it’s going to be announced in New York. That’s not the case. What I’ve heard is that New York is a key location for an upcoming product announcement. Everybody’s expecting a new iPad next week. We’ll kind of see what happens. San Francisco has been the traditional location for these kinds of announcements.
UPDATE 3 (12:11PM):
That oughta do it. We just got our invitation — the event will be held next Wednesday at 10am in San Francisco.