Apple to sell 128GB models of its fourth-generation iPad with Retina display from February 5

With reports that Apple’s iOS 6.1 software had references to a 128GB iOS devices, Apple has confirmed the existence of such devices with issuing of a press release detailing launch a 128GB versions of its fourth-generation iPad with Retina display.

The company says that the new 128GB versions of the fourth-generation iPad will go on sale on February 5, in both black or white variations, for $799 for the Wi-Fi model and $929 for the 4G-enabled model. As always, the devices can be ordered both online and in store.

The new iPad model doesn’t launch with any other new features, but will — of course — utilise Apple’s new iOS 6.1 software, which features LTE support for a number of new carriers around the world, Fandago movie ticket support in Siri, and other notable improvements.

“With more than 120 million iPads sold, it’s clear that customers around the world love their iPads, and everyday they are finding more great reasons to work, learn and play on their iPads rather than their old PCs,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “With twice the storage capacity and an unparalleled selection of over 300,000 native iPad apps, enterprises, educators and artists have even more reasons to use iPad for all their business and personal needs.”

Two days ago, 9to5mac reported that Apple had included references to 128GB devices in its iOS 6.1 beta release. Today, Apple has confirmed the devices are real, perhaps signalling that there will not be a dedicated iPad launch event early this year.

What would you do with a 128GB iPad? You could suggest it would store a huge amount of music, video and photos, but with iCloud (and other third-party services) hosting those online, it will only be a very select set of customers than lay down almost $1000 for a cellular iPad with its Retina display.