The estimated reading time for this post is 4 minutes
Today was the big day, the day of the announcement from Apple about the new iPad 2. The best news of the day is that Steve Jobs made a surprise appearance on stage, back temporarily from his medical leave, from Apple to announce the iPad 2. But about the iPad 2…
As usual with Apple products, the new iPad is thinner, lighter and better than the previous generation. The iPad 2 is 1/3 thinner than the original iPad, 8.8mm vs. 13.4mm. In fact, the iPad 2 is thinner than the iPhone 4, which is 9.3mm, and the weight of the iPad has dropped from 1.5lbs to 1.3lbs. The standby battery life has improved too, lasting for a month. With iPad 2 use, the battery life remains at a healthy ten hours, the same as the original iPad.
What’s particularly impressive about the decrease in size and weight and the increased battery life is the many features that were added to the iPad 2. The iPad 2 gets two cameras, front and back, and can take HD videos. The iPad 2 uses a new dual core chip that delivers nine times faster graphics than the original iPad. And the iPad 2 contains a gyroscope, handy for certain apps.
The iPad 2 has HDMI out (with a special cable, $39, sold separately) and introduces video mirroring so whatever is on your iPad 2 screen can also be shown on your tv.
The best news for some? The iPad 2 will be available in either black or white from Day 1. Yes, some people care passionately about such matters.
When is Day 1? Day 1 in the US is March 11 and March 25 in 26 other countries. The iPad 2 will go on sale in the US at 5pm, Eastern Time, at Apple Stores and will be available for order online at that time. Pre-orders will not be taken. I’m thinking Apple wants the longest lines possible at their stores to avoid the embarrassing coverage of the short lines at the Verizon stores on iPhone launch day.
What doesn’t the iPad 2 have? No mention was made of memory which, at 256mb, is paltry compared to the 1GB Xoom (translation, the Xoom has four times the memory). There was no increase in hard drive space either, with the iPad being offered at 16GB, 32GB and 64GB, but 64GB should be plenty of space for most people. There is no flash for the camera so forget about taking pictures or video in a dark room.
With the iPhone 4 having Retina Display (a very sharp looking screen), many were predicting that the iPad 2 screen would be a higher resolution than the original iPad, but the screen resolution is the same on both models.
The iPad will be available with Wi-Fi only or with 3G and Wi-Fi for $150 extra. There are 3G models that will be compatible with either GSM (AT&T) or CDMA (Verizon) networks.
Pricing remains the same as it was with the previous iPad, another amazing feat with the iPad 2 offering many more features than the original iPad. Steve Jobs also pointed out that five out of the six iPad 2 models were priced below $799 (the price of the Xoom).
- iPad 2 16g WiFi: $499
- iPad 2 32g WiFi: $599
- iPad 2 64g WiFi: $699
- iPad 2 16g WiFi + 3G: $629
- iPad 2 32g WiFi + 3G: $629
- iPad 2 64g WiFi + 3G: $729
A very cool accessory was also introduced, the iPad 2 cover. The cover attaches to the side of the iPad magnetically and covers the screen only. The cover folds back to act as a stand. The iPad 2 goes to sleep when the cover is on it and wakes up when you fold the cover back (why can’t Apple invent baby products?). The colors are beautiful and the price is reasonable ($39 for polyurethane, $69 for leather), I just don’t know if the cover will offer enough protection from drops and scratches.
Apple will also be offering the original iPad at discounted prices:
- iPad 16g WiFi: $399
- iPad 32g WiFi: $499
- iPad 64g WiFi: $599
- iPad 16g WiFi + 3G: $529
- iPad 32g WiFi + 3G: $629
- iPad 64g WiFi + 3G: $729
These prices are $100 off the original price of the iPad and the price of the iPad 2, so you probably will be able to get the original model at a better price on eBay.
Am I excited? Yes.
Am I disappointed? Yes.
Do I crave an iPad 2? Yes.
Will the iPad 2 be as successful as the original iPad? No.
Why no? Because Apple sold 15 million units of the original iPad in the first nine months on the market when the iPad didn’t have any competition. People now have a choice between the iPad 2 and the Motorola Xoom (running Android). HP’s TouchSmart, Blackberry’s PlayBook and other Android tablets are coming to market within the next year. Are the iPad 2’s features and pricing enough to compete against the other tablets? Only time will tell. I predict Apple will keep its lead in tablet sales, but its current 90% market share will be very difficult to maintain.
What are your thoughts about the iPad 2 announcement? Do the new features make you crave an iPad 2? Is the iPad 2 for you?
**************************************************************************************************************
Android Tech News
In a stroke of poor timing, Google has just announced that 21 apps have been pulled from the Android Market because the apps had malware (short for malicious software) and were pulling personal data from the phones while adding extra code to the phones. Here is a link to the article from Mashable that lists the malware apps with advice what to do if you had downloaded one of the free apps.
Well I, of course, will not be getting one (the anti-apple that I am). I’m not getting any other tablet either, being happy with my Nook Color. Which, truth be told is quite a tablet. Yet. B&N have said they will push a 3.0 update for it, but even if they don’t the mod community already has a mostly working version for it. All at half the price of the (lowest) ipad
Hi Matt, Welcome back to The Wonder of Tech! I’m glad you’re so happy with your Nook Color. The screen on that device is fantastic. Have you hacked it to add Android apps yet? Not the malware ones, of course…
Hi Carolyn,
Thanks for the great details on the new i-pad. Being someone who has yet to jump into the tablet world, I was wondering what your thoughts are for someone like me, with a somewhat restricted budget. Am I better off spending $500 and getting more memory with the original i-pad, or spend for the new features of the i-pad 2. Is it better to get more memory in lieu of 3G, or cut back on the memory to get 3G. Doesn’t 3G have a monthly fee, like my i-phone? Since I already have an i-phone, do I have to get another data plan or can my i-pad be part of my existing data plan?
Or, should I “jump ship” and consider someone else’s tablet? Or, should I just hold on for another year, see what comes next?
Thanks for your thoughts!
Carol
Hi CarolB, Welcome back to The Wonder of Tech! You asked lots of great questions, so let me answer them one at a time.
First I should clarify that the different sizes of the iPad are not the amount of memory, but sizes of the hard drive. So, with a 32GB hard drive on your iPad, you can store twice the pictures, songs, videos, books, etc. than you can on a 16GB hard drive. No one knows for certain how much memory will be in the iPad 2, because memory was not mentioned in yesterday’s iPad 2 announcement and is not listed in the specs for the iPad 2 on Apple’s website.
If you wish to save money, you should skimp on hard drive space because it is fairly easy to manage how much you load onto your iPad. You can choose to load only certain photo albums or only keep one Kindle book at a time on your iPad. Some people don’t even load their music onto their iPads as they don’t use it as a music player. You mentioned in your question that you have an iPhone, so you could keep your music on your iPhone and save the space on your iPad for other files such as videos, photos, etc.
So, I suggest you get less hard drive space and buy the new iPad 2 rather than get more hard drive space and buy the iPad 1.
The 3G question is trickier. Will you be using your iPad away from a Wi-Fi network a lot? Then you may want to get a 3G iPad.
If you want to use your iPad with 3G (getting data anywhere, like data on a phone), you will have to pay an extra monthly fee. The fact that you pay for data on your iPhone doesn’t entitle you to even a discount on a data plan for your iPad. The monthly fee for data on the iPad from AT&T is $15 for 250 MB of data (for people who don’t use much internet) or $25 for 2GB of data (four times as much data as the $15 plan). The good thing is there is no contract for AT&T iPad data, so you can get data one month and then cancel it the next month if you won’t need it then.
Verizon has not yet sold an iPad with a 3G data plan, so I don’t know what data plans they will offer for the iPad 2, but we will know by March 11.
One idea I had for you was for you to get a Wi-Fi only iPad and, with the $150 you save by not getting the 3G iPad, you could buy the LG Optimus Phone from Virgin Mobile. Sign up for the Beyond Talk plan at $25 a month and use the phone as your mobile Wi-Fi hotspot with unlimited data. You would be spending the same amount of money as getting a 3G iPad with AT&T’s 2GB data plan, but you would have an extra phone, unlimited texts, 300 minutes of talk time a month and unlimited data. The downside is you would have to keep two devices charged.
As far as other tablets are concerned, there are a lot of other factors to consider, but the iPad is probably the least expensive tablet alternative for you now and delivers quite a great product. Since you probably already have iPhone apps, you would enjoy having iPad apps as well. Steve Jobs pointed out yesterday that the iTunes store has 65,000 iPad apps but there are only 100 Android tablet apps.
Should you wait another year? Possibly, but you could always say that because there is always something better, cheaper, faster, etc. in the future tech world. Sometimes waiting is the hardest part.
Its probably the only time you’ll ever see an Apple product is less expensive than its competitors 🙂
Besides, a great explanation by Carolyn already – but I will add that none of the Android tablets are yet ready for the primetime. They are suffering from the lack of compelling apps, fragmentation, and not great usability-wise (on the top of it, there has been recent malware attacks). Very kid friendly. Ask my two yr old daughter who is now an expert in iPad, but she gets lost on any Android device.
Even though its missing a few things such as retina display (though it looks stunning), and lack of SD slot, yet overall iPad2 is a much better device than its Android counterparts.
Hello iReward Chart, Welcome back to The Wonder of Tech! Thank you for your insightful comment, a fascinating perspective on the iPad 2 versus Android tablets coming from a professional app developer.
You have an excellent point about Apple products usually being more expensive than competitors’ products. That makes the iPad 2 seem like quite the bargain – better quality with a lower price than other tablets!