Surprising exactly no one Apple unveils its second iPad, with CEO Steve Jobs halting his current leave of absence (due to health reasons) to take to the stage for the announcement.
The improvements on the original come as expected-- thinner, lighter, 1 GHz dual-core A5 chip, HDMI connectivity (through separate dongle, of course), x2 cameras and a choice of colours (black or... white).
One can easily say Apple hasn't done enough with the new tablet; the screen's resolution and IPS LCD technology remain the same (whereas Motorola's Gingerbread-powered Xoom has a higher-resolution screen), it lacks an SD card slot, the company's infamous 30-pin connectors continue handling connections and maximum storage size remains 64GB.
The new iPad's true winners? Its Taiwanese manufacturers, including sole assemblers Hon Hai, glass-based touchscreen module manufacturers TPK and Wintek and camera manufacturer Largan.
Some might describe Apple's competition as the losers, especially if taking Jobs' describing the likes of Samsung and RIM as "flumoxed" and "copycats" at face value. Others would differ, but reports already emerge of Samsung being in a bit of a panic-- Samsung's mobile division executive VP Lee Don-joo tells Korea's Yonhap News his company "...will have to improve the parts that are inadequate..." in reference to the soon released Galaxy Tab 10.1.
Meanwhile the iPad2 will hit (Apple) stores on March 11, with all the news stories on store queues that will entail.
Go Apple iPad
