Computer electronics heavyweight Apple Inc. has begun production on its next version of its popular iPad tablet computer, the Wall Street Journal said in an exclusive report on Tuesday, citing two people close to the matter.
While neither confirming nor denying the report, Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple has always been rumored to want to follow up on the success of its first iPad, which has sold nearly 15 million units since its release, bringing in nearly $5 billion in sales.
[Shopping for a tablet computer? Read our Tablet Buyer’s Guide.]
The report noted that the new iPad 2 will have memory and graphics processing upgrades, along with a front-facing camera that can be used for video-conferencing.
However, despite persisting rumors that Apple would improve the iPad’s screen resolution like it did with the iPhone 4, the report said that there will be a “lack of [a] significant improvement in the resolution” of the iPad 2.
The new revelation about the iPad’s production comes just days after a Reuters reporter spotted an iPad 2 device at the launch of the News Corp.’s iPad newspaper The Daily.
The new iPad 2 tablet will only be available on the two largest networks in the US—AT&T and Verizon Wireless—but not Sprint, T-Mobile, or other carriers.
The Journal article also said although specific details for prices have not been set, sources told the newspaper it would be around the current prices of $499 to $829.
The number of tablet computer shipments is expected to grow 12-fold by the year 2015, with a projected 242 million tablet computers like the iPad being shipped four years from now, according to a recent report from research firm IHS iSuppli.
The blossoming tablet computer market means good news for Apple and its iPad, as it has a head start in the tablet race, but it also means that Apple will face increasing pressure from competitors who attempt to create better and more attractive tablets.
For example, Motorola’s Xoom tablet made a marketing push with a Super Bowl spot that featured a Xoom user among swaths of white-wearing, earphone-toting people in a jab at Apple. But its $799 price tag will mostly likely be prohibitive for buyers, analysts say.
Canada-based RIM is coming out with its BlackBerry PlayBook, dubbed the BlackPad, this spring. Announced last year, the PlayBook is being marketed as a business-oriented tablet computer, much like how RIM’s BlackBerry phones are portrayed in advertisements.
With an influx in competitors, including tablets that run Windows and Google’s Android operating systems, the Apple iPad may have its market share carved into slowly over the next few years.
Android tablets have already grown from 2 percent market share to 22 percent at the end of 2010, the IHS iSuppli report noted.
Apple and its iPad are expected to remain dominant in the tablet arena until at least 2012, but could lose its supremacy by 2013, when the iPad is expected to make up less than 50 percent of the tablet computer market share due to competition from other devices.
“By 2013, the iPad will decline to less than 50 percent of overall tablet shipments, as it faces the double jeopardy of increasing competition from Android-based tablets combined with the rise of devices using PC operating systems, possibly including some from Apple,” the IHS iSuppli report predicted.
While neither confirming nor denying the report, Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple has always been rumored to want to follow up on the success of its first iPad, which has sold nearly 15 million units since its release, bringing in nearly $5 billion in sales.
[Shopping for a tablet computer? Read our Tablet Buyer’s Guide.]
The report noted that the new iPad 2 will have memory and graphics processing upgrades, along with a front-facing camera that can be used for video-conferencing.
However, despite persisting rumors that Apple would improve the iPad’s screen resolution like it did with the iPhone 4, the report said that there will be a “lack of [a] significant improvement in the resolution” of the iPad 2.
The new revelation about the iPad’s production comes just days after a Reuters reporter spotted an iPad 2 device at the launch of the News Corp.’s iPad newspaper The Daily.
The new iPad 2 tablet will only be available on the two largest networks in the US—AT&T and Verizon Wireless—but not Sprint, T-Mobile, or other carriers.
The Journal article also said although specific details for prices have not been set, sources told the newspaper it would be around the current prices of $499 to $829.
iPad Supremacy in the Tablet Market
Apple’s iPad is the indubitable leader in the tablet market, with nearly three-quarters of all tablet computers sold today.The number of tablet computer shipments is expected to grow 12-fold by the year 2015, with a projected 242 million tablet computers like the iPad being shipped four years from now, according to a recent report from research firm IHS iSuppli.
The blossoming tablet computer market means good news for Apple and its iPad, as it has a head start in the tablet race, but it also means that Apple will face increasing pressure from competitors who attempt to create better and more attractive tablets.
For example, Motorola’s Xoom tablet made a marketing push with a Super Bowl spot that featured a Xoom user among swaths of white-wearing, earphone-toting people in a jab at Apple. But its $799 price tag will mostly likely be prohibitive for buyers, analysts say.
Canada-based RIM is coming out with its BlackBerry PlayBook, dubbed the BlackPad, this spring. Announced last year, the PlayBook is being marketed as a business-oriented tablet computer, much like how RIM’s BlackBerry phones are portrayed in advertisements.
With an influx in competitors, including tablets that run Windows and Google’s Android operating systems, the Apple iPad may have its market share carved into slowly over the next few years.
Android tablets have already grown from 2 percent market share to 22 percent at the end of 2010, the IHS iSuppli report noted.
Apple and its iPad are expected to remain dominant in the tablet arena until at least 2012, but could lose its supremacy by 2013, when the iPad is expected to make up less than 50 percent of the tablet computer market share due to competition from other devices.
“By 2013, the iPad will decline to less than 50 percent of overall tablet shipments, as it faces the double jeopardy of increasing competition from Android-based tablets combined with the rise of devices using PC operating systems, possibly including some from Apple,” the IHS iSuppli report predicted.
