Apple finally announces iPad tablet
By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News -- EDN, January 27, 2010
It’s official: Apple has announced its highly anticipated iPad, a touch-enabled tablet device that some expect will bring the company’s total computer market share and sales, as well as overall acceptance of the tablet form factor, to new levels.
The formal announcement comes after more than a year of rumors have saturated tech Web sites suggesting such a device was on its way. Tuesday evening Terry McGraw, chairman, president, and CEO of McGraw-Hill, even went so far as to comment on CNBC's Earnings Central that the publisher had been working with Apple for “quite a while” on the tablet, claiming it would be based on the iPhone operating system and suggesting a consortium of McGraw-Hill eBooks would work with the tablet.
Apple, perhaps in a last ditch effort to control the spread of information on what it only called it’s “latest creation” in invites to today’s San Francisco event, advised attendees at to turn off mobile devices, according to postings to Twitter and other social media sites from the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts this morning. Attendees ignored the statement and began reporting via social media and the Web on the news as soon as Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage around 10am pacific time.
The iPad is a half inch think, weighs 1.5 pounds, and has a 9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS display that offers a full capacitive touch screen. Powered by a custom built 1-GHz Apple A4 chip, the tablet has 16-, 32-, or 64-Gbyte of flash storage. Apple did not give additional details on the A4 chip in its press statement today, nor did it confirm that the chip's design came out of the company's PA Semi acqusition in 2008, as many industry watchers suspect. (Also see, "Eagerly awaiting info on Apple’s A4 chip for the iPad and how its PA Semi buy fits in…")
The iPad comes with 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR, as well as a speaker, microphone, and a 30-pin dock connector. The iPad will also be available in a 3G model with speeds up to 7.2Mbps. Apple said the iPad works with the company's wireless keyboard. Battery life is estimated at 10 hours.
Modeled as a larger version of an iPod Touch or iPhone, reports from the event quote Jobs as calling the iPad “more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smartphone.” Jobs has also been quoted as describing the device as “thinner and lighter than any netbook.”
The iPad’s $499 starting price for the 16-Gbyte version pegs the sleek and slim tablet against the netbook price category, a device category Jobs has expressed disapproval with in the past. The 32-Gbyte and 64-Gbyte iPads are priced at $599 and $699, respectively.
Beyond netbooks and existing PCs, the iPad will compete in an already crowded tablet field. Indeed, PC industry bigwigs Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Lenovo, among others, at this year’s CES (Consumer Electronics Show) talked up new tablets that will be rolled out later this year.
To be true, tablets are nothing new. The form factor has been available for more than a decade, with the majority of tablet sales going to specific verticals, such as delivery companies and the military.
Thanks to the hype surrounding Apple's tablet product and Microsoft's touch-enabled Windows 7 operating system, tablet PCs are once again a hot topic. But, given the still chilly employment and economic situations, excitement does not guarantee that tablet PCs are finally poised for mainstream success.
Still, the shift to more portable PCs is undeniable and if any company can make the transition, it’s the iconic Apple. The iPad’s launch follows on Apple’s extremely successful iPod and iPhone lines, which, as the company likes to boast, reestablished how consumers enjoy music and video entertainment, as well as utilize the smartphone format.
The announcement came today after Apple on Monday reported an all time high for revenue and profit in its December 2009 quarter (fiscal Q1 2010). Revenue of $15.68 billion and a net quarterly profit of $3.38 billion, or $3.67 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $11.88 billion and net quarterly profit of $2.26 billion, or $2.50 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. The company reported in its statement that it sold 8.7 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 100% unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple also sold 3.36 million Macintosh computers during the quarter, representing a 33% unit increase over the year-ago quarter.
The iPad will be available in March.
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Sorry I see its just been edited to include info.
It has blue tooth and wifi.
Just Me - 2010-28-1 17:51:00 PST -
Finaly an Iphone (Whoops Ipad)I can read the text on.
So does it do blue tooth and will it run windows?
When will it be free with a new phone contract?
And what happens if I drop it 4' onto concrete?
So does it have USB, wifi, etc.
Whats the screen res?
Why do sites write such limited storys on the net, terabyte hard drives go for $83 with shipping or less ($83 at rip off bloated christmas pricing), and text takes almost no bandwidth to send.
Just Me - 2010-28-1 17:47:00 PST -
Just what I need - a giant @##$%& iPhone!!
Steve Milici - 2010-28-1 10:22:00 PST
