a mysterious video capturing a prototype of the 2011 ipad has been posted online, revealing the true nature of apple's first truly affordable tablet. this device had only 8gb of built-in storage, half of the first-generation ipad's 16gb.
the video was posted by appledemoyt, a blogger known for digging through apple's archives. this prototype was not running ios, but apple's own software called switchboard, and was labeled as "ipad 2.4". the words "8gb" could be clearly seen on the device, suggesting that apple had planned to release this model.
at the time, it was expected that apple would release an 8-gb ipad at a lower price to attract new customers. however, the plan was changed, and in 2012, the ipad 3 was released at a price of $499, while the 16-gb ipad 2 continued to be sold at $399. as a result, this experimental ipad remained a prototype.
apparently, apple believed that 8gb of storage was too little for a tablet. moreover, the company completely removed 8gb of ram from its iphone lineup in 2012.