Apple unveils the iPad
By Stephen Hutcheon in San Francisco | smh.com.au | 28 January
The iPad, the subject of intense interest and speculation over the past year, was launched today by Apple chief executive and co-founder Steve Jobs at a special event in San Francisco.
Dressed in his trademark jeans and black skivvy, Jobs described the iPad as "magical and revolutionary" and containing Apple's “most advanced technology”.
The device looks like a larger, flatter version of the iPhone. It uses the same operating system and the same business model as the iPhone. That means most of the existing 140,000-plus apps on Apple's App Store can be used on the device.
Users can check emails, watch videos, play games, surf the web, organise photos, prepare documents and present them.
British actor and technology buff Stephen Fry, who attended the event as a guest of Apple, spoke effusively about the iPad after the main event.
"It's just beautiful," he said. "You want to fondle it and lick it and play with it. And I'm going to run away with it now."
The multimedia, touchscreen device sports a 24.6-centimetre (9.7-inch) display. It is 1.27 centimetres (half an inch) thick and weighs 700 grams (1.5 pounds).
At the core of the iPad is Apple's home-made 1GHz processor. The tablet boasts a 10-hour battery life in passive mode, though using the WiFi or watching video will reduce that.
Jobs described it as "like having the internet in the palm of your hands".
Pricing details
The device will come in two key versions: one with just WiFi connectivity and the other with WiFi and 3G, allowing the iPad to be used wherever a 3G mobile phone network can be picked up.
The non-3G iPads will be available worldwide in late March for a suggested retail price of $US499 for the basic 16GB model. There will also be a $US599 32GB model and a $US699 64GB model.
Australian prices have not been announced but they could be between $50 and $100 more in Australian dollars, based on the current exchange rate and Apple’s current international pricing models.
The WiFi plus 3G models will be go on sale in April in the US and selected countries for a suggested retail price of $US629 for the 16GB model, $US729 for the 32GB model and $US829 for the 64GB model.
Apple also announced two reasonable plans via AT&T, its telecommunications partner in the US, that will give users 250MB of data a month for $US14.99 or an unlimited plan for $US29.99 a month.
He said the iPads would be unlocked and that the plans would not be on contract, meaning that users will be able to switch to other carriers if they offer better deals.
That model is likely to be the same as the one eventually rolled out in Australia, although there is no indication if Australia will be among the first countries in the world to get the 3G models in April.
Apple also displayed an optional keyboard and several types of stands which can be used in conjunction with the device.
Applications
Another big feature of the iPad is its ability to allow user to buy and download digital books.
The Apple chief gave credit to Amazon for doing a great job with its Kindle reader, adding: “[But] we’re going to stand on their shoulders and go a bit further.”
Books - including textbooks - will be able to be downloaded from Apple’s new online iBooks store and read using the new iPad iBook apps.
Jobs said five of the world’s leading publishers - Hachette, Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan - had already signed up and that more would follow.
Electronic books now make up only about 3 to 5 per cent of all book sales, leaving a largely untapped market ripe for the picking.
After the introduction, Jobs threw the floor open to developers to show off more of the iPad’s capabilities.
Two game company executives showed how the iPad could transform games developed for the smaller iPhone screen into a much more big-screen experience.
The New York Times came along to demonstrate a rich and interactive version of the paper, which was accessed through a purpose-built iPad app.
The paper's head of digital operations Martin Nisenholtz said he was delighted to help "pioneer the next version of digital journalism".
There was no mention of what the newspaper would charge users to access its content using the special app, but it is already clear that it will not be free.
This month, the Times said that it would begin charging for its online content from the start of 2011 in a move that was widely interpreted as a prelude to today’s announcement.
The entry by newspaper heavyweights into Apple’s new tablet ecosystem is likely to accelerate the push by publishers to push more online content behind pay walls.
It would be hard to charge for something on one platform (the tablet) while giving the same content away for free on another one (the open web).
Stephen Hutcheon is in San Francisco as a guest of Apple.
Photo credit: AFP
First published by Smh.com.au on January 28 2010
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