An iPad With 128GB? Could Be The iPad 4 Or iPad 5, Depending On Who You Ask

There may be a new iPad in the works with twice the storage as the current top-of-the-line model, if rumors are true. That would be a 128GB iPad, for those who are counting. But while consensus seems to be that a 128GB model could happen, the exact date when consumers will be able to purchase one is up for debate.

According to 9to5mac's sources, the new iPad would not be a totally new version, but just a more capacious version of the current fourth generation iPad with Retina display. They got the 128GB idea embedded in the code of the almost-released iOS 6.1 and references in the most recent iTunes, version 11, which show sync graphics for devices up to 160 GB. The Mac blog believes the new iPad would come in both black and white, the current color scheme, and would be available with WiFi or with WiFi and Cellular service.

Nay-saying the rumors, at least a bit, is ZDNet's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, who says that a updated higher-capacity iPad doesn't make sense from a consumer strategy point of view.

"I find it unlikely that Apple has a new iPad 4 model in the pipeline, mere months after launching the iPad 4... Consumers were upset when Apple moved the iPad refresh data from the usual March to November," said Kingsley-Hughes. "It also doesn't make sense that Apple would add a new storage size to the line-up, when both the iPad and iPhone has always been offered in three storage capacities."

He didn't doubt that the 128GB iPad could be in Apple's future, but argued that it would have to be a new model, like the iPad 5. Kigsley-Hughes argued that finding a new capability in the software code does not, a hardware update, make: "rumors based on findings within iOS beta code are notoriously inaccurate."