On Wednesday, a packed press conference in San Francisco witnessed Apple CEO Steve Jobs return to the stage to witness the unveiling of the Apple iPad 2. The portable computer, to be shipped on March 11 and available on both AT&T and Verizon networks, will forever change the tablet market.
Jobs, the face of the company, who was supposedly not going to be at the unveil, boasted an “all new design.”
The tablet is one-third thinner and weighs .2 pounds less than the original. “The iPad 2 is actually thinner than your iPhone 4,” Jobs said. In a suddenly competitive market, what did Apple do to put itself ahead of all challengers? For starters, owners of the new tablet will have a 5 MP camera and 2 MP camera on the front. The front-facing camera will cover video shooting in 720p, with playback of up to 30 frames per second, answering one of the complaints original iPad owners had.
“It needs a video camera,” said Tabitha Arnesan of New Milford, Conn.
The tablet will run on Apple’s newest operating system, iOS 4.3., which will allow, among other things, Safari to run faster. This is another way Apple designed the new tablet to make customers happy.
At the unveiling, Jobs demonstrated the use of two new apps: iMovie and Garage Band. These apps will allow users to create music and movies using the tablet, showing a more creative side of the owners. Original owners complained that there wasn’t much for entertaining features.
All the new additions and upgrades on the iPad 2 will change the way companies manufacture and design their tablets. With the faster operating system, more detailed and advanced apps will be available for purchase. This will put pressure on the latest competitors (HP and Asus) to improve their operating systems.
The advancement of the cameras will have the same effect on competitors. They won’t be able to put just any camera on their tablets anymore because anyone looking at the exact specifications will give Apple the edge.
For someone like me who has a laptop, netbook and cell phone, the iPad 2 sounds nice, but not necessary. While the upgrades sound great and make me want to play around with one of them, paying $500 is a little much for my budget. Maybe when the iPad 3 comes out, they’ll add even more features to make the decision to buy much easier.
The 16GB version featuring Wi-Fi will cost $499, while the 64GB version featuring Wi-Fi and 3G will cost $829.
Thanks to the Silicon Angle and the Los Angeles Times
