SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 28 — Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs took the wraps off the highly anticipated “iPad” tablet and pitched it at a surprisingly low price, aiming to bridge the gap between smartphones and laptops.
Jobs, who returned to the helm last year after a much-scrutinised liver transplant, took the stage at a packed theatre yesterday and showed off a sleek, half-inch thick tablet computer with a 9.7-inch touchscreen.
The iPad can run movies, games and a gamut of applications. And taking on e-readers like Amazon’s Kindle, Apple announced a digital bookstore called iBooks that will let users buy from publishers including Pearson Plc’s Penguin, News Corp’s HarperCollins, and Hachette Book Group.
“What once occupied half your living room can now be dropped in a bag,” said Outsell Inc analyst Ned May. “It’s pulling together a variety of needs (in) a universal entertainment device.”
The iPad will sell from late March for as low as US$499 (RM1,696) for 16 gigabytes of storage. An extra US$130 is needed to equip it with third-generation wireless capability.
“Pricing is very aggressive, so it’s pretty positive from a mass adoption perspective. It was about US$200 lower than what I was expecting,” said Brian Marshall, an analyst with Broadpoint Amtech. Other analysts had speculated that the tablet may cost as much as US$1,000.
Shares of Apple rose to as high as US$210.58 after the pricing news, up 5.5 per cent from their session low. The stock closed up 0.94 per cent at US$207.88 on Nasdaq, within reach of its all-time high of US$215.59 logged on Jan 5.
Apple announced a data plan with AT&T Inc, which appeared to have beaten out Verizon Wireless for the deal. Shares of AT&T, Apple’s carrier partner on the iPhone, rose 1.14 per cent while Verizon Communications Inc fell about 1 per cent.
The iPad is Apple’s biggest product launch since the iPhone three years ago, and arguably rivals the smartphone as the most anticipated in the company’s history. Yesterday’s event follows months of feverish speculation on the web and on Wall Street.
Apple hopes to sell consumers on the value of tablets after other technology companies, including Microsoft Corp and Toshiba Corp, have failed in recent years. As iPod sales wane, Apple is looking for another growth engine.
Jobs said there was a need for a new type of device that would sit between a smartphone and laptop computer, and that can perform tasks like browse the web and play games.
“If there’s going to be a third category of device, it’s going to have to be better at these kinds of tasks,” said the chief executive, dressed in his trademark black turtleneck and blue jeans.
The iPad has a near life-sized touch keyboard and supports web browsing. It comes with a built-in calendar and address book, Jobs said, calling it “awesome.”
Some analysts said the iPad, with its multimedia bells and whistles, is a tough competitor for Amazon’s Kindle. But others noted that the Kindle costs less — US$259 for the cheapest version — and was more tailored for long-form reading.
“This is not an e-reader — this is a device that can be used to read books,” Cowen & Co analyst James Friedland said of the iPad. “This doesn’t change the game — at the same time, Apple is a formidable competitor and our view is that over time, Apple and Amazon will emerge as the two largest players” in e-books.
Shares of Amazon took a brief hit but recovered to end 2.7 per cent higher at US$122.75 on Nasdaq.
In an online poll on reuters.com before yesterday’s media event, 37 per cent of more than 1,000 respondents said they would pay US$500-US$699 for the tablet. Nearly 30 per cent weren’t interested, while 20 per cent said they would pay US$700-US$899. — Reuters
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1. The Apple II microcomputer introduced in the late 1970s led to IBM to bringing out its IBM PC in 1981 and the whole slew of IBM PC-clones to follow.
2. Apple popularised the graphical user interface through its Apple Mac launched in 1984, which led to Microsoft putting Windows on its otherwsie text-based MS-DOS.
3. Apple's iTunes online music stores is the most successful example of a workable pay-for-music business model which consumers are silling to accept, in cyberspace where paying for anything online is anathema to the anarchistic Internet culture.
4. The Apple iPhone is not the world's first smartphone but introduced features and a user interface which has been imitated by many.
5. Apple is not the first with a table computer but with this launch could well introduce features and characteristics which many will others will imitate.
6. Apple encourages people to buy ebooks and as I said earlier emusic, while the likes of Google copy them, often without the author's knowledge or permission and provides them for free - a practice which could lead to the demise of authorship, musicianship and journalsm as viable vocations, while it's Apple which strives to create win-win situations for producers and consumers alike.
Apple has a reputation for creating products which exhibit a finesse both in design and user experience but no! Apple will never have the major market share, as true innovators seldom do, while the rewards always go to the copycats.
Let's consider another "unsexy" innovator - Philips.
1.Philips introduced the worlds first cassette tape player aroud 1964. It was battery operated, portable and paved the way for the Sony Walkman and the whole trend of portable music and slew of portable music players which was to follow until today.
2.Philips introduced the Compact Disk (CD) in the late 1970s, which led to the whole slew of CDs, DVDs and other optical media to follow.