Analyst Skeptical About Imminent Launch for 12.9-Inch 'iPad Pro'

Thursday January 30, 2014 4:58 pm PST by Jordan GolsonA rumored 12.9-inch iPad may still have significant development time left, according to an analyst at IHS, a supply chain research firm. According to CNET, IHS analyst Rhoda Alexander said there were a number of different larger panels, that could be potentially for a larger iPad, floating around display manufacturers -- but not in volumes necessary for an imminent launch.

"Some manufacturers over the last six months have received sample quantities of a larger panel. They're playing around with a product that could possibly be an iPad-related product," she told CNET in a phone interview.

"Various sizes are being reported with 12.85 inches being one of the sizes," she said.

Mockup of 12.9-inch iPad next to iPad Air and iPad mini
Alexander went on to say that IHS did not see significant shipments of any of the larger panels, and suggested that there may not be a market for iPads larger than the current 9.7-inch model. "We have to get a lot further down the line in terms of seeing really strong indicators from Apple that such a product exists, and we're just not at that point."

Samsung launched a 12.2-inch Galaxy tablet earlier this year with some reviewers saying the device was not very portable and awkward to hold for long periods of time.

According to a research report from Evercore analyst Patrick Wang, Apple's larger iPad may be aimed at the enterprise market. Recent rumors have indicated that the 12.9-inch iPad will launch no earlier than the third quarter of 2014.

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Apple Snaps Up Several '.Guru' Domain Names on Launch Day

The first of hundreds of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) began rolling out this week, and it should be no surprise that Apple is looking to protect names related to its products and brands. Among this initial batch of gTLDs being released, Apple has already secured several domains in the ".guru" family, presumably due to its similarity to Apple's "Genius" naming for the company's in-store support staff and recommendation features in its digital stores.

Domains in the .guru family that have already been registered by Apple and pointed to the company's name servers include:

- apple.guru
- iphone.guru
- ipad.guru
- mac.guru

Several others including appletv.guru, macbook.guru, and ipod.guru are currently blocked from registration, presumably at Apple's request.

The new domains registered by Apple are not yet active, although at some point the company may choose to redirect them to either its general home and product family pages or support pages. Some browsers with unified search and URL bars, including Apple's own Safari, have also yet to be updated to recognize the new domains as URLs. Safari currently directs such entries to searches rather than attempting to access the addresses themselves unless the HTTP protocol is specifically included in the text entry.

Apple routinely moves to protect domain names associated with its business, and the rapidly increasing number of gTLDs is only complicating that effort. Among the most notable expansions, Apple in 2012 applied for control of a new ".apple" top-level domain through a program that appears to still be in progress with Apple having passed initial review last June.

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