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TwitterIt’s been three long years since anything phenomenal had come out of Apple’s (AAPL) stable. The last legendary product that was presented to the world by Steve Jobs was the iPhone. Today, the company and Mr. Jobs took to the battlefield again and gave the tech crazy world a new product christened iPad. The first table computer from the company which joins the ranks of the other iconic products they have released.
The launch took place in front of a packed auditorium in San Francisco. Steve Jobs appeared in his customary black turtleneck and blue jeans and said “We want to kick off 2010 by introducing a truly magical and revolutionary product today.” Whether it lives up that tag, only time will tell. He then continued to play with the tablet from the comfort of a leather couch set on the screen as the world watched in awe and marveled at the product.
Live blogs gave a running commentary of what was happening in that auditorium. Video feeds enthralled the others who wanted to be part of the historical moment for tablet pc’s. Twitter’s trending topics were swamped with Apple, iPad and other hashtags relating to the launch. Mr. Jobs indeed had the eyes of the world on him and he did not disappoint.
The iPad strides in with a 9.7 inch color LCD screen. A first for mobile devices, weighs 1.5 pounds and is about half an inch in thickness. The heart of the product is a 1Ghz processor called A4 and developed by Apple. The device does not have a hard disk, but uses flash drives to improve performance and save power. It is wi-fi enabled and has a 10 hour battery life, much to the joy of many in attendance. The life translates to a 30 day standby time. The 3G variant of the product is also going to be available.
Apple iPad
Apple plans to launch the product by the end of March with a price tag that has surprised many and made many analysts eat their words. Speculation was that the product was going to feature a near 4 figure price tag, but surprisingly the entry level models will login at $499. Mr. Jobs emphasized that they had achieved not only their technical goals with the product but also the pricing goals. He wants the device to reach as many hands as possible hence the attractive pricing. Analysts have now already started talking about a price revision before the iPad reaches iconic levels achieved by its predecessors. A fact that might worry Jobs is the relative quiet market state in the tablet section. It seems that he has tried to create the desire in people to add another gadget to their life between their phone and laptop.
The shares of the company were trading nearly 2 percent higher at the end of trade on Wednesday at $207.88. The value of Apple’s shares have more than doubled in the past 12 months. Will iPad help in keeping that trend growing ?
AT&T (T) which hosts the iPhone services, will also provide the data plans for the iPad. The two plans on offer are a 250 MB plan costing $15 and an unlimited plan at just under $30 per month. There are contracts to go with these much to the joy of the customers. AT&T had come under severe criticism for the quality of its service for the iPhone has committed itself to turning things around and which have made Apple happy. Also, the new device will boost the revenue for AT&T which has seen data usage, a primary source of income these days for cellular companies, go up by more than 5000% in the past three and a half years. It’s the fight for the biggest piece right now as initially there was speculation that Verizon (VZ)might win the battle to provide data plans for the iPad.
Another big thing coming from the launch was the introduction of the A4 processor, developed by Apple. A first for the company and also a big step in its plans of not leaking any product plans to external chip supplier companies. Apple had acquired P.A. Semi in 2008 but had said that it was only done to develop better and more complicated software. A step which makes much more sense after today’s launch.
The product has wowed audiences and with the introduction of news apps like the iBookstore and iWork the company is going to make long strides forward and set the bar very high for other competitors. How much feasibility will the users find in the device remains to be seen. Here’s wishing Mr. Jobs good luck in the endeavor. For now, Apple will bask in the glory of its new device which might change the face of tablets. It wont hurt to say, there were tablets …
…and there was iPad.
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y ipad sucks –
1) no multitaskin… my age old nokia 6600 cud handle multi tasking but the ipad cant.
2)no cam – front or back so we can completely forget videochat.
3)no HDMI/HD VID- are we moving backward in time like no seriously that tiny screen is all i cud use forever.
4)adapter world – even a fuckin usb needs an adapter
5)ipad -… it is giant to fit in a pocket and it sounds as if its a high tech sanitary napkin
The thing is just something I would buy my grandma. Cmon, lets face it, this one does not really do flash. I anybody really getting a gadget like this?
Who do you think is going to win this years superbowl? And what do you think the spread will be?