London: Steve Jobs surprised many on Wednesday night when he took the stage in San Francisco to launch the second generation of the iPad. Rumours had flourished recently, following the release of pictures showing him leaving a cancer center in California, that Apple’s CEO had only weeks to live.
But the founder of the worlds largest technology never seemed to tire during the 70 minutes live presentation, although he still looked gaunt. Jobs said little about himself. Referring to the launch of the iPad2, he aid “This is something we have been working on for a long time, and I wanted to be here for it.”
Jobs did seemingly take delight in the success of the iPad, but also took equal success in his competitor’s inability to produce an affordable alternative.
He said that since its initial launch latest April until December, Apple has sold over 15 million iPads, resulting in revenue to the company of over $9.5 billion. The company also claims to have shipped 100 million iPhones The company also announced that it has paid over $2billion to apps developers, the community of programs who supply the apps that run on the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Developers receive a portions of the sales of their apps. Jobs also announced that Apple’s iBook store has sold over 100 million books in less than one year.
The main news of the night was the new iPad, simply called the iPad 2, which is a significant upgrade over its predecessor. Apple’s new A5 chip gives the device twice the processing power and an almost 900 percent increase in graphic processing. The device also has to two cameras, located front and back, for picture taking and video conferencing. Apple has also reduced the thickness of the device by 33 percent, making even thinner than the iPhone. The device will still have a 10 battery life. It will also be available in two colors, black and white.
When the iPad 2 will officially arrive in the UAE is not known. The iPad will launch in the US on March 11 and two weeks later in select countries in Asia and Europe. No Middle East countries have release dates.
The price of the iPad has not changed. Apple will continue to offer six versions ranging from $499 to $829.
