The big announcement from Apple that everyone was waiting for happened this morning. Some were wondering if Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO who has been experiencing health-related absences of late, would do the honors of introducing the company’s update to the popular iPad tablet device. That he did.
Let’s just get this out there: the iPad is Apple’s most important product line at the moment. In 2010, the company dominated the tablet market by getting there first, producing the devices at the price-points they have, and frankly by creating a tablet far superior to anything else that has arrived to market since.
In 2011, that market dominance is by no means guaranteed. Hot new tablets like the Motorola XOOM are encroaching on Apple’s dominance and in response, Apple didn’t so much perform a year-end spiff of the iPad; instead, they completely revamped it. Meet the NEW iPad 2. Here are some bullet points on the device itself:
• All new design. Radically thinner.
• 1/3 thinner than the first iPad. 13.4 Mm down to 8.8 mm thick.
• The iPad 2 is thinner than an iPhone 4.
• White and black models. White will be available launch day.
• All new CPU, the A5, 2x faster but same power consumption.
• Graphics are 9x faster.
• Front and rear cameras.
• Built in gyroscope.
• iPad 2 is lighter. 1.3 pounds instead of 1.5 pounds.
• AT&T and Verizon both supported from launch day.
• Same impressive 10-hour battery life.
Tuesdays are always pretty exciting, because as you may know, new Blu-Ray releases hit the shelves of your local retail store as well as the virtual shelves of online retailers like Amazon.com. Sorting out what’s hot and what’s not, that’s a bit of a chore so I’ve put together a brief synopsis of the notable releases for Tuesday, March 1st.
