It's an event Apple CEO Steve Jobs says he "didn't want to miss". Jobs was back to unveil the iPad2 in a rare cooperative appearance since taking a medical leave earlier this year.
This iPad is 1/3 thinner; making it's slimmer than the latest iPone and is lighter. It comes with two cameras to enable video chat and comes in two colors, black and white. But the upgrade is more than just cosmetic. The newest iPad will have more brain power. This one comes with a dual core chip for faster processing speeds.
CEO Steve Jobs proudly touted the redesign.
"And we've made it way thinner. Something's got to give and you would think that we would have to give up some of the iPad's legendary battery life, but our engineering team found a way. And we have the same legendary 10-hour battery life as the original iPad with all these extra stuff in it and yet dramatically thinner. "
And it will begin shipping in less than a month. Pricing will stay the same. But Apple no longer has the market to itself, Motorola just launched the well reviewed Xoom last week, joining others like the Samsung Galaxy. And while the competition is going, so is the market. Tablet sales are expected to reach $35 billion by the end of 2012 according to estimates by JPMorgan Chase. But with the huge success of the iPad, Apple is expected to hold on to that big lead it already enjoys.
Conway Gittens, Reuters.
It's great.
