*** Official iPad 2 Launch Thread and other things announced on 3/2/11 ***

[theeedude]

It's flipping thinner than an iPhone 4 😱, 33% thinner than the previous generation, I expected a little thinner, not this much.

There is no fundamental reason for a tablet to not be thinner than a phone if chip power is same and screen power consumption scales with area. Battery size scales with screen area, even at constant thickness.

 

[Doboji]

Im sure hoping so. Is there anything in the pipeline thats already been announced for later in the year? All i know about is the playbook, which actually looks pretty cool

I'm not impressed with the iPad 2... at all. The Xoom is superior in terms of hardware and OS... it's a LITTLE bit bigger... it's .5 thick vs .34 and it's 1.6 lbs instead of 1.33. If you think thats a huge difference... ok. I don't. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 which should be out March/April is .43 thick and 1.32 lbs... so it's pretty much the same as the iPad2... it's got superior specs... and I think it looks nicer.

In the world of tablets Apple is superior for one reason and one reason only... iTunes. If there was an equivalent media store for Android, it would be game over. But there's not. Nuff said.

 

[MagickMan]

What is hilarious about that is some people won't buy them because of the itunes requirement.

Hasn't stopped 100s of millions of people from buying iPods.

 

[postaled]

Hasn't stopped 100s of millions of people from buying iPods.

True, but it still stops SOME 😉

 

[ponyo]

Thinner, lighter, and faster with the same battery life is always a major win. Give credit when it's due. Apple did it again.

I love the cover too. First time I will buy overpriced Apple accessory to go along with the device.

 

[shortylickens]

Hasn't stopped 100s of millions of people from buying iPods.

Out of those hundreds of millions I suspect quite a few use 3rd party alternatives.
When I got the first Shuffle back in 2006 I found about 3 or 4 that worked great.

 

[theeedude]

Thinner, lighter, and faster with the same battery life is always a major win.

It's just keeping up with technological progress. If you aren't thinner, lighter, and faster with same battery life (and price) in next gen product, you are DOA.

Give credit when it's due. Apple did it again.

Yes, it's magical.

 

[ponyo]

It's just keeping up with technological progress. If you aren't thinner, lighter, and faster with same battery life (and price) in next gen product, you are DOA.

So you're saying all tablets other than the iPad2 are DOA?

 

[runawayprisoner]

I'm not impressed with the iPad 2... at all. The Xoom is superior in terms of hardware and OS... it's a LITTLE bit bigger... it's .5 thick vs .34 and it's 1.6 lbs instead of 1.33. If you think thats a huge difference... ok. I don't. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 which should be out March/April is .43 thick and 1.32 lbs... so it's pretty much the same as the iPad2... it's got superior specs... and I think it looks nicer.

Eh... the iPad 2 actually has a GPU that would be over twice as fast as Tegra 2 if Apple's claim about the 9x faster graphics performance is right. So no. At this point, the iPad 2 would have superior specs to anything else on the market.

RAM is the only unknown quantity here.

 

[lolbron]

im shocked that apple's still able to keep their ipad 2 at the same price as the first one, considering the killer hardware.. with the xoom for $800 on contract and the hp touchpad at $700ish, i think apple wins fair and square this time around.

if i had to buy a tablet today, it'd be an ipad 2.

 

[theeedude]

So you're saying all tablets other than the iPad2 are DOA?

I am saying if you are a tech company, and your next gen product is not lighter, thinner, and faster at same battery life than the last, then you are DOA. It's not major win to be all of those things, it's a requirement.

 

[zerocool84]

im shocked that apple's still able to keep their ipad 2 at the same price as the first one, considering the killer hardware.. with the xoom for $800 on contract and the hp touchpad at $700ish, i think apple wins fair and square this time around.

if i had to buy a tablet today, it'd be an ipad 2.

I think it has to do with Apple hoarding chipsets and memory and such. Pliablemoose talked about that they "invested" a ton of money into it and pretty much makes it cheaper for them and more expensive for everyone else to buy the same stuff.

 

[ponyo]

I'm not impressed with the iPad 2... at all. The Xoom is superior in terms of hardware and OS... it's a LITTLE bit bigger... it's .5 thick vs .34 and it's 1.6 lbs instead of 1.33. If you think thats a huge difference... ok. I don't. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 which should be out March/April is .43 thick and 1.32 lbs... so it's pretty much the same as the iPad2... it's got superior specs... and I think it looks nicer.

In the world of tablets Apple is superior for one reason and one reason only... iTunes. If there was an equivalent media store for Android, it would be game over. But there's not. Nuff said.

I wouldn't say Xoom has superior hardware. iPad has better screen. IPS screen is good. My guess is iPad2 has 512mb ram since Apple hasn't said. If it had 1gig, Apple would be bragging about it. CPU/GPU I'm giving it to Apple til benchmarks prove otherwise. OS, Apple.

As for Tab2, it needs to have 10.1 S-Amoled Plus if it wants to compete. And at $500. I don't see that happening. Would be awesome if so.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Antitrust wouldn't allow that to happen, though. The thing is... Apple probably buys components at a much higher volume than anyone else to get wholesale discounts. Otherwise, the other guys should be able to buy at the same price Apple does.

It might just come down to experience, where Apple is already experienced at making these devices, and they know exactly how much they have to buy of something to optimize pricing, whereas the competitions who are trying to jump in won't have that insight into the industry.

 

[Generator]

I see no reason to wait if you're in the market for a tablet. Apple products for whatever reason have little depreciation. Ipad 2 is just to safe a buy and at worst might lose out on 100 dollars. Just seems like the new Ipad is a good hedge agaisnt taking a risk with Xoom and other tablets to come.

 

[akugami]

I'm not impressed with the iPad 2... at all. The Xoom is superior in terms of hardware and OS... it's a LITTLE bit bigger... it's .5 thick vs .34 and it's 1.6 lbs instead of 1.33. If you think thats a huge difference... ok. I don't. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 which should be out March/April is .43 thick and 1.32 lbs... so it's pretty much the same as the iPad2... it's got superior specs... and I think it looks nicer.

In the world of tablets Apple is superior for one reason and one reason only... iTunes. If there was an equivalent media store for Android, it would be game over. But there's not. Nuff said.

What you post is arguable.

First, the hardware specs are largely equal with Xoom. I don't know if I'd say superior. The raw hardware performance of Xoom might be slightly better but I doubt it'll be by a whole lot. At least not enough in my eyes to label one superior. The Xoom would have to seriously outperform the iPad 2 for me to call it superior. They're both using 1ghz dual core ARM CPU's. The rest of the hardware specs from size to storage size are largely equal. The main question is the difference in GPU performance.

Second, iOS has some things it doesn't do better than Android but it does have other things it does better. Android's main strength is in its ease of customization while iOS's main strength is ease of use. The main areas where iOS needs to improve is a widget interface for its home screen and better notification. That's largely it. From the standpoint of what type of apps you can create with Android that you can't do with iOS...I can't think of one. In terms of apps you can create for iOS, the main thing is avoiding Apple's iTunes TOS. I'd call Android different but I don't know if I'd call it superior to iOS.

 

[zerocool84]

What you post is arguable.

First, the hardware specs are largely equal with Xoom. I don't know if I'd say superior. The raw hardware performance of Xoom might be slightly better but I doubt it'll be by a whole lot. At least not enough in my eyes to label one superior. The Xoom would have to seriously outperform the iPad 2 for me to call it superior. They're both using 1ghz dual core ARM CPU's. The rest of the hardware specs from size to storage size are largely equal. The main question is the difference in GPU performance.

Second, iOS has some things it doesn't do better than Android but it does have other things it does better. Android's main strength is in its ease of customization while iOS's main strength is ease of use. The main areas where iOS needs to improve is a widget interface for its home screen and better notification. That's largely it. From the standpoint of what type of apps you can create with Android that you can't do with iOS...I can't think of one. In terms of apps you can create for iOS, the main thing is avoiding Apple's iTunes TOS. I'd call Android different but I don't know if I'd call it superior to iOS.

Of course, neither one is superior to the other. Each one has as many negatives as it does positives in comparison to each other.

 

[akugami]

I think it has to do with Apple hoarding chipsets and memory and such. Pliablemoose talked about that they "invested" a ton of money into it and pretty much makes it cheaper for them and more expensive for everyone else to buy the same stuff.

They're hoarding more than memory. They're hoarding other key components as well. I think it was speculated that the $3.9 billion dollar investment that Apple made recently was for lcd screens for the iPad. It was also speculated that Apple cornered a large percentage of the available LCD screens for the next two years.

Let's face it, it's a sound investment and use of their money. They cornered the market on micro sized HD's during the early days of MP3 players and that helped their iPod to succeed because they could actually ship products while others were sent scrambling and scrounging for parts. They've spent a large amount of cash securing NAND memory in recent years while others had to scramble to find any amid shortages. Now the rumor is they're doing it again for tablet sized LCD screens.

 

[postaled]

They're hoarding more than memory. They're hoarding other key components as well. I think it was speculated that the $3.9 billion dollar investment that Apple made recently was for lcd screens for the iPad. It was also speculated that Apple cornered a large percentage of the available LCD screens for the next two years.

Let's face it, it's a sound investment and use of their money. They cornered the market on micro sized HD's during the early days of MP3 players and that helped their iPod to succeed because they could actually ship products while others were sent scrambling and scrounging for parts. They've spent a large amount of cash securing NAND memory in recent years while others had to scramble to find any amid shortages. Now the rumor is they're doing it again for tablet sized LCD screens.

If I remember correctly they are Samsungs #2 customer of components other than Samsung.

Another fun thing about android is being able to get CIFS.

 

[Pliablemoose]

I think it has to do with Apple hoarding chipsets and memory and such. Pliablemoose talked about that they "invested" a ton of money into it and pretty much makes it cheaper for them and more expensive for everyone else to buy the same stuff.

Yep, Apple has the supply chain pretty well nailed for producing these devices, the only company that can come close to the price point is Samsung, one of Apple's major suppliers...

Also, here's Engadget's hands on impressions:

Okay, we've had a chance to play around the with iPad 2 some more, and here are our big takeaways from the experience.

• This thing is insanely fast. We're not joking -- it's blazingly fast. Everything the iPad 2 does feels like it's on turbo. We're uploading a video of the some evidence of this, you'll be appropriately stunned.
• The design feels great in your hands. Sleek, super thin -- much nicer to hold than the previous version. Definitely has more of a magazine than book feel. Everything is tight and solid. It is pretty amazing how thin they've gotten the device.
• Even software made for the first generation device feels better here. Safari is definitely sped up. Games looked great on-screen, though obviously there are no updates to the resolution of screen technology here.
• This is an evolutionary step, but we definitely don't feel like it's lacking for features. People are going to gobble these up when they see the new apps.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/02/ipad-2-first-hands-on/


No one's mentioned that the new iPads aren't 4G compatible... I guess I don't really care, I'd rather have decent battery life. And we'll likely see some decent chipsets that don't burn through a battery charge like the current generation of 4G devices...

There have been rumors of MBA's having 3G chipsets in them soon as well...

 

[MagickMan]

I think it has to do with Apple hoarding chipsets and memory and such. Pliablemoose talked about that they "invested" a ton of money into it and pretty much makes it cheaper for them and more expensive for everyone else to buy the same stuff.

This I would not doubt at all. They do tend to stack the deck in their favor, and it's easy to do with the amount of cash they have.

 

[tokie]

I suppose the iPads are technically 4G capable, since HSPA+ is now rebranded as a "4G experience". What is the real-world difference between HSPA 21mbps and HSPA 7.2mbps? Not much on any device other than a USB wireless stick.

 

[zerocool84]

I suppose the iPads are technically 4G capable, since HSPA+ is now rebranded as a "4G experience". What is the real-world difference between HSPA 21mbps and HSPA 7.2mbps? Not much on any device other than a USB wireless stick.

There's also 14.4 in addition to 21 and 7.2

 

[foghorn67]

Glad I waited on buying a used iPad. Might go for a new gen 2.
Dammit Playbook, get here now.

 

[Trader05]

I know im probably the only one, but im still going to the hp touchpad. Im an anti-apple guy but im real surprised that Apple put out the specs today and can deliver it next week.