Today, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc. announced the release of the iPad, Apple's version of a tablet computer, saying, "It's phenomenal to hold the Internet in your hands." Building upon the explosive strength and popularity of the App store and including many of the features of the iPhone, the new iPad offers a new and intimate kind of computing with a vivid display for multimedia content.
Merely half an inch in thickness and weighing just one and a half pounds, the iPad has generated tremendous speculation and hopes that it will create another industry explosion like the App store.
An Enhanced User Experience: Gaming & Apps
The new iPad enhances the user's experience, enabling a more intuitive and enjoyable method of viewing websites, watching videos, reading books, and listening to music. Light, thin, and portable, the iPad is ideal for the active user.
The iPad will be equipped to run all the 140,000 applications now available in the iPhone. In addition, with its glossy, high-definition screen that can be viewed in landscape or portrait mode with all the features iPhone users have come to love such as the click, zoom and tap functions.
Digital Publishing and E-Books
Publishers and media companies will now have a new avenue for displaying and selling content through Apple's new online e-bookstore called iBooks. The iPad may offer a much-needed boost to the struggling publishing industry. While traditional print industry may be on its last leg, the same well known giants in the publishing industry such as Hachette, Macmillan Simon & Schuster, Penguin, and HarperCollins have already signed on with Apple in new publishing arrangement that gives them a 70% cut on each purchase. Publishers will charge $12.99 to $14.99 for most books. A substantial improvement upon the Amazon book store, the new publishing agreement also offers a substantial threat to the Kindle market, doubling Amazon's royalty rate.
iPad's Areas for Improvement
Some questions Apple faced immediately upon announcement of the new iPad is the lack of a camera and the inability to watch Flash. Other concerns raised included whether book aficionados would choose e-readers such as the Kindle instead or a netbook for a smaller and less expensive web-ready computer. Others called the iPad a "large iTouch."
Apple however has sprung many surprises over the last decade that have gone on to phenomenal success and sparked new industries. The popularity of the new device is yet to be determined yet interest is already peaking in the new glossy iPad.
The iPad comes in 6 models, of which 3 connect only via a Wi-Fi (ranging in prices from $499 to $699) while the other 3 also feature a 3G wireless access (additional $130) along with a data plan from AT & T.
With its large screen, increased memory, multi-touch and multi-tasking, the iPad promises to offer a dramatically improved user experience. The timing could not be more fortutious. Mobile usage has increased exponentially in the last year alone. Facebook users have increased more than 600 percent in 2009 while App store sales are predicted to hit $15 billion by 2013. iPhone app developers are also excited to hop on to the new bandwagon; ready for the next gold rush in App development.
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