Apple Inc. has started manufacturing a new version of its iPad tablet computer with a built-in camera and faster processor, said people familiar with the matter.
The new iPad will be thinner and lighter than the first model, these people said. It will have at least one camera on the front of the device, but the resolution of the display will be similar to the first iPad, these people said. It will also have more memory and a more powerful graphics processor, they said.
The new iPad will initially be available through Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., but not Sprint Nextel Corp. or T-Mobile USA in the U.S., according to some of the people familiar with the matter.
A spokeswoman for Apple declined to comment.
The production of the new iPad shows how Apple is moving forward in the wake of Chief Executive Steve Jobs’s disclosure last month that he was taking a medical leave.
The iPad, which debuted last April, has opened a new market and is critical to Apple’s success. Since the iPad’s release, Apple has sold 14.8 million units of the device.
In Apple’s December quarter, the tablet contributed $4.6 billion in sales, or 17% of the company’s overall revenue.
The new iPad is expected by Apple watchers to debut in the next couple of months at a similar price range as the current iPad, though exact details couldn’t be learned. It currently costs between $499 and $829.
Investment bank Piper Jaffray estimates Apple will sell 27 million iPads in 2011, and some investors expect as many as 35 million units. “It’s going to be a critical growth driver,” said Gene Munster, a Piper Jaffray analyst.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., better known by its trade name Foxconn, is assembling the new iPad in China, the people familiar with the matter said.
The tablet market has become more competitive since the iPad’s arrival last year. Companies like Samsung Electronics Co. and Research In Motion Ltd. are working on tablets based on Google Inc.’s Android software with features the iPad won’t have, such as support for high-speed 4G networks.
Although the iPad dominates tablet sales now, research firm IHS iSuppli estimates that by 2013, the iPad’s market share will decline to less than 50% of the overall market.
On Tuesday, Dell Inc. said it plans to release later this year a 10-inch tablet that runs on Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 7 operating system. Hewlett-Packard Co. is expected Wednesday to show off a tablet that runs the WebOS operating system it acquired along with Palm.
Verizon Wireless, a venture between Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, was late in getting the first iPad, but will be on equal footing with AT&T this time.
The one feature in the new iPad that may disappoint consumers will be the lack of significant improvement in the resolution of the device’s display. People familiar with the situation said Apple has had trouble improving the display technology, in part because of the iPad screen’s larger size compared with the iPhone.
Do the people familiar with the matter know when it’ll be released?
Enjoy it Apple because the tablet is nearing commodotization. Next stop, huge price drops.
Pfnerd50, I wish I could “Like” your comment!
Apparently, they weren’t familiar with the matter.
Article says it will be released in next couple of months.
iPads are made in China?
They said that these people said that people familiar with the matter said that Apple had no comment. So they said.
It will probably be out in early April, like last year’s. Apple doesn’t announce new products until only a month or two before they come out, and they are very secretive, so the media is none the wiser.
i still do not understand why people buy apple products – they canabalize themselves every two quarters. you have to be an idiot to buy the initial apple product because in about a year they will come out with a better product with less bugs and more battery life. my professor in college was right, america has enough idiots to make a millionaires out of anyone who who can be disingenuous with a smile on their face
lamonth you are the idiot if we follow ur idiotic professor than it will be impossible to every buy anything. Anything you buy now and within a year it will become old so if we wait untill the new model then guess what in a year that will be old to. Duh
lamonth I completely agree with you and your professor. That’s why I’ve been waiting to buy a car since every year they come out with new models that have new features and better gas mileage. I’ve been waiting since the Model T came out to buy my car. One day I’ll finally pull the trigger. I have also waited to buy a TV, computer, and what do they call those thing? Oh yeah, the cellphone. They’re always coming out with smaller, cheaper, and better ones of those. Some day I’ll get one of those too. I can’t believe my library would waste all that money buying these computers for me to use. They’ll be old in a year. They should have waited until next year to buy the new model.
The iPad 2 may be in production but that does not mean it will produce something that we will consider “magic” or something that will “change everything” again when compared to these other tablets on the market.
Here are 3 things that the iPad will need to kill its Android’s Honeycomb platform: http://goo.gl/9zD3H
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