New iPad : How Everyone Missed The Name

Now that Apple has made the formal announcement this morning for the latest version of the iPad, many are going to be talking about what it contains or does not contain based on all the rumors which have been circulating over the past several months. Some of the rumors, such as the "Retina Display" were spot on in their accuracy while some others were close but not right on the mark. As an example, the A5X processor versus the A6 processor. Those are going to be talked about for weeks, if not months, regarding this latest version of the iPad. Apple has already put up a page comparing the new iPad to the now previous version on their web site. Twitter is flowing with Tweets about the latest iPad. Articles are being written, such as the failure on the part of Apple to include Siri which resulted in so much success for the iPhone 4S. These comments and debates will be with us for a some time. So many will be playing the "Monday morning quarterback" analyzing what Apple did right and what they did wrong.

The one thing that everyone missed in the rumor mill was the name. No one guessed that it would be simply called the iPad. Respected publications are still calling it the iPad 3, such as PC World among a list of others. How could everyone miss the name change and in a lot of cases continue to call it the iPad 3 hours after the formal announcement by Apple? That is something that is confounding. There was the well recognized name of the iPad 3. The rumors about the name being changed to the iPad HD because of the retina display were circulated by many as what it would be called and some are still using term. Some of those who were claiming the name to be the iPad HD or believed it would be include:

• Venture Beat


• The Washington Post


• CNet News


• Mashable Tech

And this is just a few of the many sources which seems to have believed that the coming iPad would be called the iPad HD. There was a majority of people who believed that it would be labeled as the iPad 3, the natural successor to the iPad 2. How could everyone be wrong? I have not found any leaks of the name "iPad" and no one was reporting a name other than the iPad HD or the iPad 3. It makes you wonder how everyone could have missed the change in the name so completely.

Now the debate begins as to why the iPad does not have a specific label assigned to it so that it represents the current model. It has already started with posts from CNN as to why the iPad does not have a name. Or the the New York Times talking about how it is puzzling experts. It seems that it is a marketing mistake to not provide a unique name for a product.

"It's just 'iPad.' It's what it is."

As to how everyone could have missed the mark on the change, we can chalked that one up to Apple. Their ability to keep things secret and control the leaks which then turn into rumors is one that continues to confound journalists. Why Apple has chosen to create the simple name will also confound journalists for quite a while. What are they going to call the next iPad they release? As for now, the name is the iPad. This will undoubtedly create confusion for consumers and there is nothing to stop Apple from calling it the iPad HD or iPad 3 in the coming weeks. But for now, the name is just simply the iPad.