Apple iPad Launch Event Summary - March 2011

By Dmitry Shapiro

SURPRISE! Steve Jobs appeared onstage. I guess the rumors of his demise just lost some legs. He started off by re-capping the year:

· iBooks: 100M books downloaded in less than a year

· iTues, App Store and iBooks over 200M accounts created.

· 100M iPhones shipped

· 15M iPads sold in 2010 (9 months) garnering over $9.5B in revenue for Apple

· 65,000 iPad specific applications in the app store vs. 100 Android Tablet specific apps.

He is saying that the iPad is not a computer. It’s a Post-Pc device. For those of you who read my posts, that’s called a “PARADIGM SHIFT”. Educators are calling it the future of education and doctors are calling it the future of medicine. One thing I like about Jobs is that he highlights that DEVELOPERS (Not Apple) are taking the device to places they could have never imagined.

Now he’s introducing the iPad2……Yes, they’re ACTUALLY calling it the iPad2:

As I expected, it has the new, 1GHz A5 chip inside, which is a dual-core chip. The CPU is 2x faster and the graphics are 9x faster. However, it consumes about the same power as the A4 which means that the battery will last just as long (10 hours). Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t announce RAM. It’s got front and rear cameras. We all suspected the front camera, but he rear one is a surprise. It’s also got a gyroscope and is about 1/3 THINNER! It’s down from 13.4mm to 8.8mm. It’s actually thinner than the iPhone 4 and the weight is down from 1.5 lbs. to 1.3 lbs.

Most importantly (don’t know why this is such a big deal to everyone) IT COMES IN WHITE!!! It will support both AT&T and Verizon (without an external antenna). The price will also stay the same. What’s disappointing is that the memory units will still be the same: 16, 32 and 64GB. I was hoping for more on-device memory. It will start shipping on March 11 in the US and March 25^th in a bunch of other countries! Accessories include: HDMI video out and HDMI Mirrored Video Output. You will be able to output EVERYTHING YOU SEE ON THE iPad to your TV at 1080. (Just like Steve Jobs presents!! YAY for Demo’s!!!!). Unfortunately, there is no mention of USB or SD ports. It has VGA video recording up to 30 fps on the front camera, VGA-quality still camera and a rear camera with HD (720p) video recording up to 30 fps with audio and a still camera with 5x digital zoom and geotagging over Wi-Fi. You can tap to control exposure for video or stills. It also has a much larger speaker on the back. There is also an ambient light sensor. They’re also coming out with what they’re calling “Smart Covers”. This is a cover for the screen that will fold back for viewing and auto-wake or auto-sleep based on whether it’s open. It will be held in place by magnets. The micro-fiber screen cover will clean the screen every time you close it. When you see the photos, you’ll be amazed at how thin it is. It’s made of polyurethane.

Now for iOS 4.3……

It has dramatically improved Safari performance with Nitro Javascript Engine (2x faster). I also will include iTunes home sharing. Airplay will allow you to send everything to Apple TV. You’ll also be able to lock the orientation. It also will include Photo Booth. Also, as expected, it will include Facetime. They also introduced iMovie for iPad which will allow you to edit movies on your iPad and will sell as a $4.99 app. It’s very similar to iMovie for OS X. It will also include Garage Band as an app for $4.99.

So, my conclusion? If you need to output your iPad or want to capture photos and video with it (which is really hard if you haven’t tried it with a tablet before just based on trying to hold it up for the photo) then you definitely need one. If you want to run very high end graphics and edit video then you definitely need one. Will you feel completely left out with your iPad 1? No. You’ll be fine and if you don’t fit into one of the above categories, I’d wait for the iPad 3 which is rumored to be due out in the fall along with the iPhone 5 and OS X Lion.