Apple has finally launched the next gen iPad 2 from the high pedestal of success that the original iPad has brought home. Something that only Apple right now can boast of. For no other tablet manufacturer can lay claim to the enviable record of close to a staggering 15 million iPads shipped in less than a year of its debut. But then things have changed in the last few months so that Apple can no longer be considered the lone player in the segment. A lot of high profile players have now entered the fray and are sizing themselves up for a share of the mega tablet pie. At stake is Apple’s over 90 percent share of the tablet segment. While it remains to be seen how much of ground the Cupertino based company cedes to a resurgent opposition, the new iPad 2 is already showing signs of a mega battle ahead. Or will the new iPad will walk away with the tablet crown once again, obliterating all the advantage that the competition thought it had? let’s find out.
The biggest advantage that the iPad2 has to its credit is its thinner and lighter form factor. Its 33 percent thinner and 15 percent lighter than the first gen iPad, making the new iPad 2 one of the thinnest and the lightest tablet around. Apart from the form, the other major upgrade with the new iPad is the change of heart that it now incorporates. With the new Apple A5 processor based on ARM’s Cortex-A9 design and with a clock speed of around 1 GHz, the the iPad 2 is about twice as fast as its predecessor. With more powerful processor also comes the advantage of faster graphics processing capabilities and the new iPad simply excels here. Apple claims its now 9 times faster here, which means all of those memory crunching games now have a lot more space to thrive.
Also, the other thing that was sorely missed in the original iPad and which the iPad 2 comes with is a twin camera setup, one at the front and another at the back. While the front facing VGA camera will allow one to engage in facetime chat, the rear facing camera can be used to click still and 720p quality videos with 5x digital zoom.
Another big advantage with the iPad 2 is its operating system – iOS version 4.3 which comes along with significant improvements over the earlier version. Among the areas that gains from the new version is an enhanced Safari and AirPlay performance along with iTunes Home Sharing.
However, what the iPad 2 does not come with and perhaps would have made thing even better if it did is the inclusion of USB and SD Card slots. Also, much of the above mentioned qualities of the iPad 2 is already commonplace among many a tablet. Prominent among them is the Motorola XOOM or the Notion Ink Adam that are currently available. Then there are a few more big names such as the Blackberry Playbook, HP TouchPad, to name just a few. All of these either already comes with all the features that the iPad 2 is currently having. Or maybe even more than what the iPad is equipped with. So what this means is, Apple has its work cut out against the new entrants in the tablet segment. While the new iPad does have it what it take the battle forward from the erstwhile iPad, what is certain is that it won;t be as easy this time for iPad 2 as it was for the original iPad.
With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I'll likely make a film sometime in the future.
