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.

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.