Only a scant few days before Apple's big reveal of the iPad 3 – or the iPad HD, or whatever it plans to call its retina-display tablet. And while you won't be able to physically pick up a new tablet on announcement day, the general rumor community is hopeful that Apple's going to have the new iPad ready to go anywhere from a week to two weeks from Wednesday's big reveal.
While there's been some talk that Apple might jump the price of its new iPad anywhere from $70 to $80 over the launch price of the iPad 2, new leaked information making its way over to 9to5mac refutes last week's pricing rumors. According to 9to5mac's Mark Gurman, the prices of the various iterations of the next iPad are going to be identical to the price tags you'll find on today's non-discounted iPad 2 tablets.
In other words, nothing's changing.
According to the price matrix, Apple's next iPad will come in six different versions, split between Wi-Fi-only tablets and tablets enriched with data connectivity via AT&T or Verizon (currently expected to be 4G LTE on both). Tablets will come in three total capacities: 16, 32, or 64 gigabytes.
So how does that break down? For Wi-Fi only iPads, the 16-gigabyte variant is expected to ship for $499. The price bumps up to $599 for a 32 gigabyte tablet and $699 for the 64-gigabyte tablet. Those looking to pick up an iPad that comes ready to connect up to either AT&T or Verizon's data services get to enjoy a bit of a surcharge for the capability: $629 for a 16-gigabyte iPad, $729 for a 32-gigabyte tablet, and a whopping $829 for a 64-gigabyte tablet.
As for data plans, AT&T currently offers iPad 2 users 250 megabytes of data for a $14.99 monthly cost, three gigabytes for $30, and five gigabytes for $50. Going over one's 250-megabyte AT&T plan costs $14.99 for an additional 250 megabytes (oof!), while overage charges on the gigabyte plans are only $10 for each additional gigabyte. Verizon offers up three total monthly data plans: two gigabytes for $30, five gigabytes for $50, and ten gigabytes for $80. All Verizon data overages cost $10 per gigabyte used.
Those looking to score a deal on the iPad 2 before it may or may not become irrelevant (a new report from Digitimes suggests that Apple might also launch an eight-gigabyte variant of the iPad 2 Wednesday, which seems unlikely) can currently enjoy a $50 discount at Best Buy – undoubtedly a result of the store attempting to clear out inventory to make way for Apple's newer tablet.
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