iPad 2 price to be slashed to $299?

We expect Apple to be launching their next iPad in the first quarter of this year and many rumours suggest that instead of launching a single tablet, they will announce two new slates. Rumours have been floating around that Apple will launch a high-end tablet and a mid-range tablet to compete with the increasing number of tablets available from other manufacturers. A report by Digitimes states that the brand will keep their iPad 2 model and retail their base Wi-Fi version of it for USD 299.

Image for representative purposes only  (Image credit - Techoologic)

The same report says that sources from Apple’s supply chain have informed them that there will be two new models this year with the higher-end model featuring a resolution of 2048 x 1536. The second one that is to be announced will be a mid range version and is believed to feature a resolution of 1024 x 768, which is the same as that of the iPad 2. However, a discerning factor between the two tablets and the present iPad 2 is that they will feature an A6 processor, as opposed to the A5 processor found on the current generation tablet.

The report ends saying that if the 16GB Wi-Fi only iPad 2 will sell at USD 299, the non-Apple tablet manufacturers could seriously be affected and this could even include the hot selling Kindle Fire.