Steve Jobs, Apple's chief, knows the iPad 2, his company's latest invention, is safe for the time being.
 Steve Jobs had some strong words for Apple’s competitors as he launched the    iPad 2 in San Francisco earlier this week. Apple’s chief executive said that    the original iPad, released less than a year ago, had left the competition    “flummoxed”. “They went back to the drawing boards,” he said. “They tore up    their designs because they weren’t competitive.” 
  What might sound like hubris to those who are unconvinced by the fervour that    sounds any new Apple product is largely supported by the facts. By the end    of 2010, Apple had sold 15 million iPads. The company estimates its share of    the market at 90 per cent or more. The most pessimistic view of Apple’s    place in the tablet market right now suggests that its share may have fallen    as low as 75 per cent in the last quarter of 2010. Overall, though, the    tablet market remains Apple’s. 
  The competition is growing, however. Motorola’s Xoom tablet, released in the    US last month and due in Britain some time next month, has had generally    positive reviews; there are high hopes for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet,    which is expected next month; and Samsung is about to release the second    version of its Galaxy Tab, the first version of which was greeted    enthusiastically by technology writers but, by the company’s own estimation,    failed to sell in significant numbers. 
  But as many competitors are readying their first tablet computers, Apple has    now announced its second. The iPad 2 is lighter and thinner than its    predecessor, is powered by a faster processor and has front and back cameras    for video conferencing. Crucially, though, it can take advantage of an    existing ecosystem: a new version of Apple’s iOS operating system and around    65,000 iPad-specific apps. 
  Who can take it on? "None of the ones that we’ve heard from so far," says    Sarah Rotman Epps, of analysts Forrester. She says the tablets we’ve seen so    far and the ones that are about to be released are "solid products with    fatally flawed product strategies". 
 
 
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