Since the Apple iPad was released in April 2010 the number of units in use has grown at a huge rated limited by supply more than demand. Now roughly 15 months since the iPad first shipped the sleek little devices represent close to 1% of the entire web traffic.
A recent Net Market Share report from Net Applications’ shows US iPad traffic as 2.1% and global at a tad over 1%.
That is quite impressive for a device that has created a category overnight.
At WWDC in San Francisco Jobs and his team announced a string of new products and services to be launched later this year. The names where known before hand but not all the details.
First the next version of the Mac OS or Lion will be available in July and cost $29.99 and it will be available from the Mac App Store. This means an on-line purchase of an OS upgrade. Quite a bold step giving up on DVD distribution, but makes a lot of sense. What do you get ? Well Apple claim 250 new features. The ones that caught my eye: Gestures to make the Mac more like an iPad. As most Macs are laptops with a fancy integrated mouse you can already do some fancy gestures, Lion gives you more. Second if more Apps working in Full Screen. This gives you more real estate and less clutter, very Apple. And we like the sound of Resume, when you restart your Mac Loads all the apps that you had open. Very neat.
Second is the mobile OS or iOS 5. This is the software that drives the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch and in total that is a lot of devices. Again a whole bunch of new features and APIs for developers, 200 in total. This release will ship in the fall. Seems to combine lots of clever or small updates and enhancements that will make using an iOS device a neater experience. Key ones are better notifications and reminders, messaging for the iPad, more wi-fi integration and now the option not to have to sync to a PC.
The big news and the least known about – The launch of iCloud. Apple has had Mobile Me for some time, a system with a love hate relationship with users and Apple. iCloud takes it much, much further and is the first combined cloud service to be offered by the mainstream players. First is the price – Free for Apple users. Secondly is the scope, this is not just a service, its built into the key Apple apps. Now you can synch contacts, mail and calendars with all you devices. Then you can add in documents, like an integrated Sharepoint. Add in photos so no longer any need to synch devices to each other to update the photo library and then the big one, Music. Not only will Apple now synch you iTunes purchases between your devices but it will also store all your music and convert you non iTunes purchases into iTunes music. – That’s clever. And all this for free, apart from Music Matching as compared to $99 / year for mobile Me.
Interesting data on Cnet site showing sales on Netbooks and the rise of tablets. It was only a few years ago the Netbook sales were all the rage and vendors were rushing to product them. They were never great devices. They only had two attributes: They were small and cheapish. They were also slow with tiny screens.
The iPad has demolished this line of products. And with the emerging Android tables I think it is fair to say RIP to the tablet.
Maybe output is increasing as the supply of iPads shows signs of starts to catch up with demand.
This morning our local PC World had a delivery and we walked out with the last unit. We love it and the more you use it the more your start to appreciate the power and design excellence.
This is a product that just works so well, that using it is a pleasure.
See unpacking images below.
First post created on iPad with pictures from iPhone.
The RIM PlayBook has just been reviewed by a number of the big names and the overriding conclusion for a product with a screen 50% of the iPad and no email is that it is a total failure – born dead.
For example:
“RIM has just shipped a BlackBerry product that cannot do email. It must be skating season in hell,” New York Times’ David Pogue wrote in a review published on Thursday.
“I got the strong impression RIM is scrambling to get the product to market,” Walt Mossberg, the widely followed business and consumer technology critic, wrote in a Wall Street Journal article headlined “PlayBook: a tablet with a case of codependency.”
The UK iPad 2 launch still seems to be on – Email from Apple saying that it will be available at 5 PM on Friday from Apple Stores.
When will the line form outside Regent St and Covent Garden.
How many will be on sale? Will they sell out on the first day?
We will know more in 48 hours.
UPDATE – Sunday
A visit to our local PC World confirms our fears. They had 80 units for sale on Friday. They lasted the less than half an hour. PC World say all units were gone within 20 minutes. – Thats about the time taken to process 80 sales.
The iPad 2 is now available in the US from Apple stores and on-line. Sales commenced on Friday morning. There are 6 wi-fi versions available: 16, 32 and 64Gb in both black and white. Then there are 3G versions available with AT&T or Verizon cards, with another 6 variants per carrier. That’s quite a few SKU items.
The question is how many iPad 2′s will Apple sell over the first week end. The online store shows a wait of 3-4 weeks for all models, implying Apple is fresh out of iPad2.
Can they sell 1 million units in the first week end?
European shipping is scheduled for March 25. However if US sales are above expectations this date may slip as units are passed to the US market to satisfy demand.
Apple have invited the press for a San Francisco meeting on March 2nd – One week today. The invite has a picture of what looks like an iPad. Of course this could be a pre announcement of an update to IOS.
Until next week the rumours will be flying. We can only wait.
