Apple’s forthcoming iPad 3, widely expected to arrive earlier next year, will reportedly be slightly thicker than the current iPad 2, and will be backwards-compatible with existing Smart Covers.
The report, which comes to us from Macotakara, also claims that, due to the slightly increased thickness, iPad 2 cases will not work with the next-gen iPad, although the Smart Cover will remain compatible.
Macotakara claims an “unknown reason” for the additional thickness, although prior reports have suggested that the increased thickness is due to a new dual-LED backlighting system to support the higher resolution Retina display.
More recent rumors have suggested that the iPad 3 may actually be thinner, due to a new IGZO display technology created by Sharp – and it doesn’t seem likely that Apple would really make the next iPad thicker unless there was no other choice.
Some of the confusion could be due to there being two separate iPad 3 prototypes (J1 and J2) being used to test various components and designs, as suggested in a separate report.