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Higher-res iPad, lower-cost iMac coming, KGI says

KGI Securities offers a tip sheet on iPads, iMacs, and MacBooks coming in 2014.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers
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A future 9.7-inch iPad will get a pixel-density boost, says KGI Securities.
A future 9.7-inch iPad will get a pixel-density boost, says KGI Securities. Apple

KGI Securities has offered a veritable data dump of speculation on upcoming Apple products, including a higher-resolution iPad, a low-cost iMac, and an iPad Mini Retina.

Pixel-packing iPad 6: Forget the iPad 5 -- KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is talking iPad 6. He anticipates a 9.7-inch iPad with a pixel density that exceeds today's iPad by 30 percent to 40 percent, as reported Saturday by MacRumors and other Apple blogs.

That's considerable, as the iPad 4 already has a pretty high pixel density of 264 pixels per inch. (The iPad 5 is expected to maintain that pixel density but be thinner and lighter.)

That iPad would appear in mid-2014.

He does not expect, however, a large 12.9-inch iPad.

"Contrary to speculation that next year's iPad next year may come in a 12-inch form, or larger, we think it will not change from the current 9.7-inch format as we think a 12-inch iPad would not provide a good mobility experience given today's technology limitations," he predicted.

Whether that speculation about the non-appearance of a large iPad is borne out, remains to be seen as there has been a lot of supply chain chatter about a large iPad.

Kuo also expects Apple to announce an iPad Mini Retina at Apple's media event later this month. Analysts have told CNET that though they anticipate Apple's announcement of a Mini Retina, supply may be constrained this year.

Lower-cost iMac: A cheaper iMac may also be in the works, according to Kuo. The current iMac just isn't selling in large numbers.

"Our surveys indicate that Apple's last iMac model...shipped fewer-than-expected units in the worldwide market. We think the price was set too high," Kuo said. "We thus think Apple may offer a budget iMac model to push shipments among non-US markets in the face of solid competition from Lenovo (CN), HP (US) and other rivals."

12-inch MacBook: Kuo also chimed on a new 12-inch MacBook, as CNET reported earlier this week, based on data from NPD DisplaySearch.

The 12-inch MacBook appears to be, for all intents and purposes, a new version of the MacBook Air. Kuo doesn't call it an Air, but NPD DisplaySearch characterized it that way.

Whatever Apple calls it, the 12-incher is expected to be even thinner and lighter than the current Air, according to Kuo. "The high-resolution display will also offer the outstanding visual experience of the Retina MacBook Pro," he said.