Apple’s Jobs took his rightful place center stage, unveiling iPad 2

Six weeks after taking a medical leave, Steve Jobs, Apple (AAPL) CEO and co-founder, appeared on the stage Wednesday in San Francisco to unveil the iPad 2.

It was a crowning moment. It’s the stuff of legends, biographies and biopics. (For the record: I’d cast Christian Bale, fresh from Tinsel Town triumph in The Fighter to play Jobs, and Jack Black as Steve “The Other Steve” Wozniak.)

The audience gave him a standing ovation.

Only hours earlier, some were fretting that the gaunt Jobs, who is coping with pancreatic cancer, a liver transplant and only he, his family and doctors know what else, would upstage his team’s creation, iPad 2, the computer game-changing tab.

All Things D's Kara Swisher, broke the news about how Jobs was considering an appearance at the event. “What would be a welcome change in the coverage of Jobs' personal struggles would be to show a level of respect to him by paying more attention to what bells and whistles the iPad 2 has rather than to how his jeans are fitting,” she said.She added: “That's the truly dramatic story to watch here, rather than needlessly rubbernecking about the struggles of one man -- albeit, a very significant man -- to regain his health.”

Others expressed similar sentiments, fussing that the man would upstage the machine. They worried that comments about thinner form, paler complexion and succession would be applied to Jobs rather than iPad.

I thought this concern was silly. Tech devices will come and go. Jobs is the real story.

NBC Bay Area described the scene: “Appearing in his ‘Steve Jobs’ uniform of Levi jeans and a black turtleneck, the man who is battling an illness many suspect to be related to his liver ailment, had good color and great energy. He might be a bit thinner than the last time we saw him in public, but nothing like the (blogosphere) rumors that talk of him barely being able to walk and being just weeks away from his death.”

“Jobs had the energy to stay on stage for more than an hour. He used his time to do what he does best: sell Apple products.”

CNN seconded the emotion: “(T)here was Jobs, looking thin but happy and vigorous. Whatever health concerns prompted his most recent leave didn't seem to affect his flair as an Apple pitchman.”

That pretty much was the consensus.

I think it’s great that Jobs was there to play his traditional role, switching on his distortion shield and taking shots at rivals. Great theater. It would have been weirder if he didn’t or couldn’t do it.

Jobs and iPad 2 shared the limelight. iPad 2 suffered no dire consequences. Apple’s shares even went up.

Source

The Apple iPad 2: I Told You So

Apple's tablet update finds the sweet spot for consumer desire and once again puts the competition on notice.
No, the Apple iPad 2 is not a game changer. Instead it simply, firmly establishes Apple once again as the front-runner in the tablet wars. Apple and chief executive Steve Jobs (who made an appearance and received a standing ovation) focused on all the right areas to ensure that the Apple iPad will remain the tablet you have to rule out before you buy any others.
As I predicted, Apple added not one, but two cameras. This makes perfect sense, though I was not particularly happy to hear an Apple exec say on stage that the iPad is perfectly suited for these cameras and FaceTime. Why couldn't the first-generation iPad, which I own, also have been considered perfect for at least one camera? Apple didn't say anything about the resolution on the cameras, though we know the rear one can capture 720P, more or less - the Apple definition for "High Definition." Please, no one tell Steve Jobs that someone on the iPad team sneaked by an accessory that outputs full 1080p from the device (more on that later).
Yes, the iPad got thinner. I knew this would happen, but I didn't expect it to get thinner than the iPhone 4. That was a nice bit of engineering on Apple's part. When I finally held the iPad 2, the difference was noticeable. It's even lighter than my current iPad (I held one in each hand). I honestly never thought the first iPad was heavy, but by shaving off a fraction of a pound, Apple may have just made the new iPad a little more attractive to people considering the once lighter-than-the-iPad Motorola Xoom. Speaking of which, wonder how many people will remember that the Xoom was 1.3 pounds first?
The iPad 2 is faster, thanks to its dual-core A5 chip. This one was easy to predict as so many competitors were rolling out tablets with dual-core Tegras. Apple promises that the graphics are nine times faster. There's no way to verify that claim without testing, but Apple certainly had some developers excited. In the demo room I ran into Mark Rein, vice president for Epic Games and maker of "Infinity Blade". He couldn't say enough about the new iPad and positively gushed about the promised performance enhancements, calling it "incredible," and adding, "It went beyond what we expected. Nine times graphics improvement! We're graphics whores." By which I think he meant that they really, really like graphics performance. I'm not sure, by the way, Apple could've introduced iMovie for the iPad without the overall performance boost.
One thing that didn't change, though, is the screen. Not only did Apple not go with a retina display—which many people explained to me was mathematically impossible for a screen of the iPad's size—but the company didn't change anything about the screen. It's the same resolution, 1024-by-768, as before. I'll admit that I am a little disappointed by this, but it does not make me want the new iPad 2 any less. I am pleased, however, that Apple did not follow the trend of delivering a wide-screen device.
Not changing the price was another stroke of brilliance. Competitors must start their tablets at $499 or leave the arena—end of story. Obviously, you can spend as much as $849 on the high-end iPad 2 model, but that really only impacts storage, 3G capabilities and GPS. I've never turned on my 3G—there's so much available Wi-Fi out there that I simply do not see the need. Apple didn't introduce a 4G model, but that doesn't mean they won't. The market is still absorbing iPads so that, along with a higher resolution screen, could be part of the iPad 3.
I've been to Apple events where the accessories seem like afterthoughts or even just plain silly. Not so this time. I like the Smart Cover, which uses magnets to attach the iPad 2 (and can even put it to sleep and wake it up) and the HDMI out port will clearly be a hit with anyone who wants to show movies photos, slideshows and more on an HDTV (without the need for a Wi-Fi network). I am not sure, though, that I love the Smart Cover. I keep my iPad fully covered, and this foldable face only shields the screen. I'm not sure I consider that enough protection for a device that's now thinner than ever.
Unlike last year, Apple's competitors are well on their way to entering the market with strong, viable tablets that could and should easily appeal to a variety of markets, but as of now, not the Motorola Xoom, HP Touchpad, Samsung Galaxy Tab or Blackberry Playbook stand above the Apple iPad 2. Not only because the product is now thinner, lighter, faster and just as affordable as before, but because there are currently 65,000 apps ready and waiting for iPad 2 customers. No one else has that, and it could be quite a while before any of them do. In the meantime, the Apple iPad 2 will continue to attract consumers and developers. As Rein told me, they're not on other mobile platforms [with Infinity Blade] "because the real business is on Apple."
Finally, if competitors want to understand why Apple has 90 percent of the tablet market and will likely hold onto a good portion of it in 2011, they need only look at how Apple couples product announcement with product delivery. Apple announced the first iPad at the tail end of January 2010. By early April, they were in stores. The Apple iPad 2 will ship less than two weeks after its unveiling. The competition, which has a habit of teasing with cool products and not even offering a ship date, has just been schooled.

Source: pcmag

Apple iPad 2: why tablets are the future of computing

By Shane Richmond, Head of Technology (Editorial)
Apple didn’t invent the tablet computer, such devices have been commercially available since the 1980s, but they didn’t invent the MP3 player or the mobile phone either. Instead, they did what they always do: refine the product for their market, make the design as slick and simple as possible and the market it brilliantly. Without the iPad, it’s unthinkable that so many tablets would be appearing in shops today.

Announcing the iPad 2 last night, Steve Jobs talked about it as a "post-PC" device. It's clear Apple considers theses devices to be the future and it's a theme that Jobs has spoken about before. At a conference in June last year, Jobs said: "I’m trying to think of a good analogy. When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks. But as people moved more towards urban centers, people started to get into cars. I think PCs are going to be like trucks. Less people will need them.

"And this transformation is going to make some people uneasy… because the PC has taken us a long way. They were amazing. But it changes. Vested interests are going to change. And, I think we’ve embarked on that change. Is it the iPad? Who knows? Will it be next year or five years? … We like to talk about the post-PC era, but when it really starts to happen, it’s uncomfortable."

Far from being a ‘big iPod touch’, tablet devices are changing the way many people use computers and changing the perception of computers for others. Earlier this week, JP Rangaswami, chief scientist at cloud computing firm Salesforce, told me that he realised the extent of the tablet revolution when he heard about how archaeologists were using them. With fewer holes for dust to get in, no keyboard with moving parts and no need for power or cabling, tablets were perfect for archaeologists in the field. Add in the battery life of an iPad and the fact that it’s easy to use at the strangest of angles - something that’s tricky even with a netbook - and you have an ideal device.

Apple made a similar point in their iPad 2 announcement, showing a video of the original iPad being used in schools and in doctor's surgeries. The message is that this takes computers into an environment where they weren't previously comfortable. Your GP probably has an enormous old PC on his desk but has he ever used it to explain something to you?

Source: telegraph

Apple iPad sequel less of a stock splash

The launch of the second version of the iPad should help Apple Inc's shares, but don't expect a repeat of the surge that came after the first version was released last year.
New products have fueled the bellwether's relentless upward momentum, making it one of the most valuable companies in the world, but next-generation products have traditionally resulted in milder gains.
Apple is hosting a media event on March 2 to unveil the new iPad tablet computer, which is expected to be thinner, faster and have a new front-facing camera that will enable video chatting through the company's FaceTime application.
"A new version is more of an additive where an entirely new category is a game-changer," said Jerome Heppelmann, chief investment officer at Old Mutual Focused Fund in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, who owns shares. "It isn't that there will be limited upside after the release, it will just be limited compared to a new category."
When Apple released the iPad in 2010 the stock surged 10.6 percent in the first month after it hit shelves, continuing a trend of double-digit percentage gains in the first month after a new line of products is introduced.
Subsequent product versions resulted in less robust gains in the first month after release. After next-generation versions of the iPhone were released, the stock posted either milder gains or dips.
To see a graphic on Apple's share reaction to new products,
see: http://r.reuters.com/cup38r
The biggest product-related gain was after the iPhone was introduced in 2007. Shares gained 41.1 percent between that day and when it was officially launched because it was viewed as revolutionary.
The iPad sequel is not expected to make such a splash.
"There tends to be a 'sell the news' reaction after this kind of event," said Michael Quigley, a technology analyst at Wedgewood Partners in St. Louis. "But as we get estimates on demand, it usually ends up being much more optimistic than people were betting. We're expecting it to rally."
Shares of Apple were lately down $2.61, or 0.8 percent, to $350.60. The stock is up 8.7 percent in 2011 and has gained 314 percent in the last five years.

SEARCH

Follow us on Facebook to get the latest finance and business related updates. Click here for the latest from Union Budget 2011. 

Source: sify.com

Apple iPad event live

Apple is expected to launch the iPad 2 in San Francisco tomorrow. You can follow the Telegraph's live coverage here. 

By Shane Richmond, Head of Technology (Editorial) and Emma Barnett, Digital Media Editor 4:56PM GMT 01 Mar 2011
 The successor to the iPad is expected to be launched tomorrow, though as always with Apple launches, nothing is confirmed. Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, has taken extended leave from the company for health reasons, so tomorrow’s event is likely to be hosted by Tim Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer, or by Phil Schiller, the company's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing.

What will he announce? Will the new iPad have a camera? A higher-resolution screen? Will it have more storage and a faster processor? Will it be thinner and lighter? Will there even be a new iPad at all? There are plenty of questions but we won’t know the answers until Cook or Schiller takes the stage. However, since Apple attracts obsessive interest - from fans as well as critics - we can expect plenty of speculation and commentary as the moment of truth draws near.

When the iPad went on sale a year ago, many observers were sceptical of its chances for success. However, Apple sold around 15 million of the devices in 2010 and most of its competitors have since announced tablet computers of their own. None attracts quite the fascination of an Apple launch, however.

We'll track the rumours and debate as the day progresses and keep you informed of the announcements at the event, minute by minute.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

 

Apple iPad 2 Features: The Likely, the Unlikely and the Impossible

Apple will likely unveil the iPad 2 next week. Possible new features include dual cameras, slimmer body and a more powerful processor. But Adobe Flash support? Unlikely.

 Next week, Apple is widely expected to introduce the next version of its popular iPad.

Apple’s media invitation to the San Francisco event features an iOS calendar icon for March 2, its upper-right corner peeled away to reveal the edge of an iPad. That not only removes any questions over the focus of Apple’s announcement, but also poses a challenge to Motorola, whose Android-based Xoom tablet just hit store shelves.

The Xoom, along with other Android-based tablets either on the market or in the development pipeline, aim to break the iPad’s headlock on the consumer tablet market. It comes with Google’s Android 3.0, also known as “Honeycomb,” which has been optimized for tablets. Hardware includes a 10.1-inch screen (with 1280 x 800 resolution), Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor, front- and rear-facing cameras, and 32GB memory.

Pair those specs with an $800 price tag, and it seems clear the Xoom is aiming at the market segment currently occupied by the highest-end iPads. But Apple isn’t a company to take challenges lightly: by all indications, the next iPad will include a number of features designed to keep the tablet on top of the market.

And therein lies a bit of a challenge for Apple. Since its April 2010, the iPad has sold around 15 million units. If the next iPad’s new features prove so wide-ranging and spectacular as to instantly antiquate its predecessor, it could irritate a substantial portion of those 15 million users who shelled out hundreds of dollars for their tablet. On the other hand, if the iPad 2 offers only incremental upgrades to the existing software and hardware, Apple could lose ground against increasingly aggressive (and increasingly powerful) competitors.

With that in mind, what potential features will make the cut in the iPad 2?

Front- and Rear-Facing Cameras

Rumors have circulated for months that Apple intends to integrate both front- and rear-facing cameras into the next iPad. That would allow the company to blunt competition from other tablets with a dual-camera setup, while letting iPad users take advantage of the FaceTime video-conferencing application already present in the iPhone and iPod Touch. In addition, an iPad rear camera would likely have the capability to take both photos and high-definition video. Likelihood: Almost Certain

Read more... 

Article from: http://www.eweek.com

Apple confirms March 2 media event to introduce iPad 2

By AppleInsider Staff

Apple on Wednesday sent out official invitations for a media event next week on March 2 in San Francisco, presumably to show off its second-generation iPad.

According to The Loop, Apple sent out invitations to the media on Wednesday. The event will be held as usual at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

An image sent with the invitation shows an iOS calendar icon with the date March 2. The calendar is peeling away to show an iPad screen in the background, confirming that the event will indeed be about the iPad.

The announcement confirms a rumor from earlier this week that Apple would host a media event next Wednesday. Apple is expected to show off a new iPad with faster hardware and a FaceTime camera.

Earlier Wednesday, AppleInsider was informed by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of Concord Securities that overseas supply chain sources expect Apple partner Foxconn to build between 4.5 million and 5 million iPad 2 units in the first quarter of 2011. That would be followed by another 3 million to 4 million units in April.

The analyst has also said that the iPad 2 will feature an upgraded display that will be feature improved anti-reflection capabilities, though not a higher pixel density. The new device is expected to be thinner and lighter with more RAM, a faster CPU, and improved graphics processing capabilities.

More than 60 percent of the first wave of iPad 2 shipments are expected to be 3G-capable models. Apple is expected to build 3G models with both GSM and CDMA cellular radios -- and perhaps even a "world mode" device that would support both technologies in one.

Some third-party cases for the iPad 2 have also shown an extra port on the side of the device. Initial speculation suggested it could be for a Mini DisplayPort adapter, but given evidence that Apple is poised to announce a new high-speed data port called "Thunderbolt" in the shape of a Mini DisplayPort slot, it's possible the space could also be used for data connections as well as video output.

Apple has waited longer into the year in 2011 to announce its next iPad. The first-generation device was revealed in late January of 2010, though the Wi-Fi-only model didn't ship in the U.S. until April.

First-year iPad sales blew away even Apple's own expectations, topping 15 million by the end of calendar 2010. Apple executives said they were surprised at how quickly the iPad moved past the "early adopter" phase and became a mainstream hit.

Even before the iPad 2 is officially announced, the rumor mill has already started for the iPad 3. Some reports have claimed that Apple will offer a new, high-end device differentiated from the second-generation iPad as soon as this September. Such a move would allow Apple to offer a refreshed product line alongside its introduction of new iPods before the holiday buying season. 

Source: appleinsider.com

Apple iPad 2 launch slated for March 2

Apple will launch the next generation iPad at an event in San Francisco on March 2, it's been revealed.t's also expected that the new device will go on sale a month later, according to sources.

Apple has booked the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts to launch iPad 2, where Steve Jobs also launched the orginal device.

Speculation in the run up to March 2 is now likely to focus on whether Mr Jobs will will make an appearance at the event.

He has been on medical leave from Apple since mid-January, and was pictured last week leaving a cancer clinic in Silicon Valley. Tim Cook, the firm's chief operating officer, is overseeing day-to-day opertaions in his absence.

The device itself is likely to be thinner and lighter than current iPad models, which have sold more than 15 million units since release last March. Industry watchers also expect iPad 2 to feature a front-mounted camera for video calling, and a higher-resolution screen.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

 

Apple iPad 2: further progress in prospect?

Apple’s iPad has legions of zealous fans – but it’s right we should look to the industry leader for more progress in iPad 2 

The Apple iPad Photo: AP

 

By Matt Warman, Consumer Technology Editor

Apple has sold 15 million iPads, and in the process created a whole category of computer that, despite many previous attempts, no company had ever got off the ground before. A combination of technology maturing at the right moment and Apple’s peerless command of user interface design has meant that, in just over a year, the iPad has spawned more than a hundred tablet rivals on various operating systems.

Challengers from Google’s Android stable, led by the Motorola Xoom and the new Samsung Galaxy Tab, have shown that other tablets will soon offer Apple a greater threat than ever. And HP’s ToucPad, too, is an impressive machine, with wireless charging and a host of clever accessories.

But Apple, in its marrying of hardware and software, continues to stay at the head of the tablet pack. It’s that which makes iPad 2 an exciting prospect; rumours that it will be thinner, lighter, feature a higher resolution screen and cameras would not, in themselves, be terribly exciting from any other manufacturer.

With Apple, however, it’s the ease of use that is crucial. In a way that few other manufacturers ever manage, the iPad and iPhone make their sophisticated features available to users. It’s that which makes the fans so loyal, and it’s also that which explains the huge levels of hype. And better for all of us, Apple users or not, it’s that which drives competitors on.