MacRumors has received word from a developer who has seen evidence of a previously unknown “iPad3,6″ device showing up in his app analytics. Most interestingly, the device’s processor targets the new ARMv7s architecture that supports the custom A6 system-on-a-chip found in the iPhone 5. This new iPad thus appears to be running either an A6 chip itself or a variation on Apple’s custom A6 design.
What’s interesting about this news is that there were rumours that Apple was going to update the entire line of iOS products this fall so that every new device will have the new racketeering Lightning connector. That would require an update of the ‘new iPad’ which was released in March of this year. This unknown iPad would be that updated iPad 3.
But what makes this bit of news really interesting is the inclusion of the new A6 processor. That thing just screams and smokes the iPad 3′s A5X chip. If Apple is going to put an A6 in the iPad 3, it would be a significant spec bump. A spec bump that would be more befitting of typical the iPad update cycle (once a year in spring) than be treated as an afterthought update mid-cycle. For what it’s worth, iMore—which has been dead on in the past—is saying that this revised version of the iPad 3 will come with the new, fast A6 processor that’s in the iPhone 5. According to them, this updated iPad 3 is ready to go, it’s just a matter of when it’s coming.
So when will it be coming? Well, if the iPad Mini is really going to be announced this month, that would make for a good platform to sneak in an update of the iPad 3. But the question is, at that point, what would happen to the iPad 4, which would theoretically follow in the Spring of 2013? Maybe that’s too far ahead to speculate. As for this mysterious iPad 3, I guess we’ll find out what happens soon enough.