The iPad 3 and Moore’s Law

This is so stupid, I'm a bit surprised it came out of a normally excellent site.

The crux of the article is that retina graphics use more bandwidth, and thus Apple should have "thought about it" first.

By that logic, the first iPhone never would have existed, because it used way more bandwidth than any phones before it.

> "In the end this is not good for the web, because it’s just too bloody much data."

This reads like an ISP's argument against every form of progress on the web since the mid 90s.

I think what most of you are missing is that many cellular providers provide only a fixed number of bits every month.

If you go over you face a large penalty.

So, this isn't such a big deal for those with the wifi version and virtually unlimited bandwidth at home.

It's a problems for those use those fancy new 4G LTE plans (like mine) that will use up your allocated bits much faster.

You'll be able to load those large images faster, however, that counts against your monthly download limit.

Something to think about as unlimited plans are rare.

Verizon just sent me an offer for the new iPad.

The available data plans are:

2GB for $30

5GB for $50

10GB for $80

Those on the 2GB should consider at least consider this point.

The author argues that high-density displays are a problem, because you have to download roughly twice as big pixel-images for apps and websites.

Use vector images instead! Pixel logos are necessary for small resolutions, but 300dpi are good enough for vector graphics.

Totally disagree. Faster HSPA+ (DC-HSPA+) / LTE are here today. No reason to wait on improving the end user experience. We also have DOCSIS3 and FTTH on the residential broadband side. In any event bursty traffic like web browsing isn't the problem causing congestion. It's the constant bit rate stuff like video & audio streaming that puts a heavy constant load on networks. (I would agree at least that we should have a browser option to prefer SD web sites)

If this were such a problem, we'd already have seen it. The iPhone 4 with its retina display came out nearly two years ago, so it's safe to assume that if there already was some kind of retina optimization, it would already have begun.

Most sites I visit don't do anything like that and look perfectly fine: Because the resolution doubled in both sides, upscaling in a good-looking way is trivial to do.

If the iPad 3 retina display really does pose a problem to web bandwidth, this piece would have been more interesting if the author had said at what point in the future there will be sufficient bandwidth.

Most of the space on a website today is filled with rendered text and CSS-styled elements. There are just not that many high-resolution images on the average site today, unless it's media-heavy (Flickr, etc.), and then you already know that it's a high-bandwidth site.

But, anyway, I predict that vector UI components will overtake raster images, thanks the increasing fragmentation of display resolutions on Apple's iOS devices.

I think you have Moore's Law confused..

I can't believe I wasted my time reading this.

This guy didn't even have his facts straight when he posted.

Apple already increased its cellular file download limit from 20MB to 50MB, before rolling out the LTE iPad. That's an increase of 2.5x, which is more than enough to cover the expected increase in sizes of apps containing Retina-resolution graphics.

Doesn't the 4G LTE connection on the iPad 3 solve this problem, at least partially?

> In the end this is not good for the web, because it’s just too bloody much data

What does that even mean?

One word: vectors

What is Cooper's Law, and how is it related to this article?