http://www.tuaw.com/2011/03/04/apples-year-of-ipad-2-doesnt-necessarily-mean-no-more-ipad-u/
The entire idea of a September release of another iPad was kicked off by speculation from Daring Fireball's John Gruber. He theorized that an iPad update in September would allow Apple to make yearly releases of the hardware immediately before the highly lucrative holiday quarter, increasing Apple's sales. Gruber also said the hardware might not be so much an iPad 3 as an update to the existing hardware: an iPad 2 HD with the widely-rumored double-resolution display.
整個 iPad 3 謠言，是從 Daring Fireball 這個部落格開始的。熟悉國外科技論壇的人都知道，Daring Fireball 是一個立場偏向 Apple 的部落格。但他們發表的都是「評論」與「分析」，很少八卦，說他是謠言源頭，實在有點不可思議。
點進 Daring Fireball 仔細看了原本的 PO 文才搞懂，那篇有關 iPad 3 的根本不是在講 iPad 3。作者 John Gruber 主要是針對 2 月初 HP 的 TouchPad 發表評論：
The Next Six Months
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
HP today announced their answer to the iPad: the TouchPad — a name that, not coincidentally, is drawn from those of two best-selling iOS devices.
其中唯一一段和 iPad 3 扯上邊的是，作者認為 Apple 與其在 Q2 開頭推出這個產品，還不如把它放在 Q4（九月）。他認為就算 Apple 真的在 Q2 就推出 iPad 2（別忘了本篇是二月初寫的），他們還是可以在九月做一個小更新；作者認為「如此一來應該可以有效刺激聖誕節買氣」。
I don’t think April is a particularly good month for an annual iPad release. I don’t think it’s a particularly bad month, either, but it doesn’t make as much sense as September. April is four months into the new year, but still feels like “early” in the year....
Thus, my gut feeling is that Apple will move the iPad to a September release schedule, alongside the iPods.
Maybe it won’t be an actual next generation model. Maybe it’s more like an iPad 2.5, or iPad 2 Pro — a new higher-end model that sits atop the iPad product family, not a replacement for the iPad 2 models (which, of course, haven’t even been released yet).
所以就真相大白了。
簡單的說，整個「Apple 將在秋天推出 iPad 3」的傳聞，全部出自 John Gruber 這個部落客自己發想的「Apple 這樣做比較好」的評論。基本上 John Gruber 的評論有其道理，但是沒有事實根據，所以這只是一篇「評論」。然而這篇評論被第三者流傳、誤用，結果變成這樣不倫不類的業界謠言，我想這也是 John Gruber 始料未及。
有點年紀的人應該都還記得「貓在鋼琴上昏倒了」這個經典廣告。沒錯，流言止於智者這句成語人人都會講，人人也都認為他自己才是智者。而在這個事件中，我們扮演的角色是智者還是火上加油的散佈者？
延伸閱讀：為什麼又是英國研究
