Steve Jobs, Apple's chief, knows the iPad 2, his company's latest invention, is safe for the time being.
Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs speaks during the Apple iPad 2 event in San Francisco 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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