Apple will keep iPad 2 in lineup, even after the launch of the iPad 3

The rumour mills about Apple’s iPad 3 is starting up again. This happens year after year when Apple is set on announcing a new gadget or device. Legions of Apple fans would blog and speculate about the features that they think will be included in the newest versions of Apple’s devices. Some would even go so far as to create mock-ups of what they think the gadgets will look like.

Apple can’t just keep on adding products to their lineup without retiring some eventually in the process. Rumours are surfacing that they might stop production of previous versions of the iPad once the iPad 3 is announced, but some industry insiders claim that this will not be the case.

Apple has been said to have ordered fewer 9.7-inch, 1024 x 768 IPS LCD panels for production, although they have not ceased ordering the part entirely as well. This means that the giant is still planning on manufacturing and selling the iPad 2, even after the LTE-capable iPad 3 will be going on sale this March.

Apple was said to have ordered 1 million units of the 9.7-inch 2048 x 1536 panels in the fourth quarter of 2011. However, they have since pushed this up to six to seven million units this quarter. This figure might rise to 10 million units by the third quarter of this year.

Estimates put Apple’s orders of the older screens at 16 million during Q3 2011. This dropped to 10 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, and then seven to eight million in the first quarter of this year. This information suggests that the giant still has no plans of killing production of the iPad 2, even with the release of the iPad 3.