Apple’s iPad 3 pricing likely to stay the same after all

Will the next-generation iPad, expected to be announced this Wednesday in San Francisco, cost more than the previous two? The Internet has debated this question since last week, but newly published information suggests the answer is no.

9to5 Mac claims to have received new info on the so-called "iPad 3" pricing matrix. Their information shows the devices falling into the same price points as the iPad 2 for their respective configurations. According to the site, the iPad 3 will come in the same three configurations: 16/32/64GB models in both WiFi-only and 3G+WiFi (if there is an LTE iPad 3, its pricing appears to remain a secret). The starting price for the 16GB WiFi model will reportedly be $499—the same as the 16GB WiFi-only model of the iPad 2.

The report goes directly against a previous rumor last week out of Chinese social networking site Sina Weibo. Instead of $499 for the 16GB WiFi-only iPad 3, the site claimed it would be $579—an increase of $80 for WiFi models. Sina Weibo is almost the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, so any claims made there should be taken with a huge grain (or maybe an entire block) of salt. The information from 9to5 Mac makes more sense when considering Apple's typical strategy—the company rarely raised prices on new versions of its products in recent years—but we'll find out the real answer soon enough.