On Apple Rumors

It always surprises me when you see a new rumor and it proclaims "Next iPad on Verizon!" 

First off, this hasn't been a debate since Verizon started selling iPads with MiFis in their own store. 

Second, if anyone else remembers, the cellular bits on an iPad are on a separate board, one that literally plugs in. Apple wouldn't have done that if they didn't intend to ever use more than one carrier. It may even have been the plan to release the current-gen iPad on Verizon at some point, but the timing was off between Monday's announcement and the next iPad (likely to come in the next 2 months).

And when someone else excitedly shouts about Apple using Intel’s new Sandy Bridge architecture, I’m similarly confuzzled. Why wouldn’t a computer manufacturer update its products to remain competitive? (Nevermind that the base-level MacBooks are still running on Core2Duos. That’s a story for another day.)

And finally, what does it matter? Apple, unlike almost every other manufacturer out there sticks with 12-month release cycles for nearly all of its gadgets, and 15-month cycles for its mainline computers. Excluding the just-announced Verizon iPhone, they’ve barely deviated from that schedule at all in the past decade. So I’m not excited at all to hear that there’s going to be a new iPad in mid-March, a new iPhone in late June or early July, and new iPods for back to school. That’s just how Apple does it.