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iPad 3 Retina Displays Being Made By Samsung?

Another series of images has leaked showing the iPad 3’s retina display. The images come from inside one of Samsung’s factories in China, and show the display being packaged for shipment. The displays pictured are apparently being packaged for shipment to Samsung’s facilities in Korea. From there they will be sent on to Apple.

The images come from App.Wepost.Me (no Google translation available, unfortunately), a Chinese news site specializing in mobile tech. In addition to the image above, there are several others that appear to have been taken at various points in the packaging process. Check out a few of them below:

iPad 3 Display

iPad 3 Display

iPad 3 Display

Boxed Up

Assuming these images are genuine, they don’t actually confirm that the iPad 3 is getting a retina display. They do, however, provide a unique look inside one of Apple’s supply chain factories. Given Apple’s generally secretive nature, that in itself is interesting.

And yet, not everyone is happy about the prospect of a retina display iPad 3. In a recent article on Forbes, Anthony Wing Kosner suggests that the advance of retina display technology has its cons, too. While he notes that a retina display on the iPad would allow for “unbelievably vivid images” and image density to rival printed paper, he also notes that displaying higher quality images on the iPad would create several problems. He argues that streaming content at the level of image quality that a retina display iPad could support would put an increased strain on data networks, leading to increased energy costs, excessive bandwidth requirements, and higher-cost data plans. He also argues that the cost of content itself – like high-res photographs, for example – will increase, and that the high-res images sites like Pinterest would be required to create would make “the possibilities of copyright infringement go up exponentially.”

It may well be the case that a retina display on the iPad 3 won’t turn out to be all it’s cracked up to be. After all, when rumors first began surfacing in late summer of 2009 that the iPad 2 would get it, many argued that the iPad display was good enough as it was, and that a retina display on the iPad might be too much. In any event, Mr. Kosner’s “cons” are only tangentially related to the actual inclusion of a retina display in an iPad.

It is more likely, though, that the iPad 3’s retina display will be as much a hit with users as the iPhone 4’s retina display was, and that it will not cause excessive strain on the internet. Moreover, if Apple really is bringing the retina display to the iPad – as now seems all but certain – it lends strength to long-running rumors that Apple’s computers may be next in line for the technology.

What do you think? Is an iPad 3 retina display really a bad thing? Sound off in the comments.