It seems sometimes that mobile phone and tablet users almost salivate for news of the new, next-gen gadget that is coming, and we admit that we’re right there among them. For iOS lovers, news that both the iPhone 5′s long-awaited debut is due around June is only the start. Others around the world and we in the UK have noticed a definite indication that Apple’s iPad 3 is about to hit the shelves, giving credence to the March release date estimation.
It’s not uncommon for manufacturers to stop shipping prior-gen products on the eve of a new product introduction: Every shelf-foot of space used by products costs money, and they want to make sure there’s plenty of shelf space available for the next, best thing they have.
Apple has followed this reduced inventory trend for some time. In March of last year, prior-gen items like the MacBook Air, iMac constraints and Macbook Pro, to name a few, were all but emptied from inventory – not replaced as sales were registered. UK retailers are posting signs that many of Apple’s 3G product series are
“out of stock.”
Their WiFi-only items, though, seem to be still available so far. We have found no indication that Apple will completely discontinue their WiFi-only models, but it’s becoming readily apparent that their older 3G models are definitely on their way out or out already, literally.
What might that mean? Since the shortage extends beyond Apple’s distribution capabilities and into retail stores, it just might mean that the emptying space is being reserved for none other than the iPad 3, which merges both GSM and CDMA capabilities, rumour has it, into one device, thereby making the separate-capability, iPad 2 models redundant. And if they wanted to push the new product over the old, the easiest way to do that is to not order any more units of the older iPad 2s – at least for a while, creating the consumer item vacuum.
And both nature and marketing hate vacuums. 
