New iPad Launched: One Tablet to Rule Them All?

On Wednesday, Apple unveiled for the first time, the new iPad, a device that it hopes will help maintain the company’s hold on the tablet market for the foreseeable future. Not a revolutionary tablet according to Apple, but what it brings will make iPad lovers everywhere extremely happy for a long time to come.

Apple has done away with the numbering system by not calling it the iPad 3, but instead the “new iPad,” a name that is the center of heated debates across many forums as to whether or not it is relevant to name it as such. Both the new iPad and the iPad 2 have identical looks, the main difference is the thickness and weight of the new iPad. This may be due to the 4G LTE radio settled inside.

Some of the specs announced were a surprise to us, we never saw Apple making such moves because of past actions. For example, 4G LTE is not yet being adopted quickly by the masses since the roll-out of the service is only just begun by the top network carriers, and the problem it poses for decrease in battery life. However, it appears the battery life problem is not a problem anymore - Apple claimed the new iPad will still be capable of holding out for 10 hours.

The specifications here are going to be the true selling point of the new iPad. With its super high resolution display which supports 2048x1536 resolution, the new iPad is more than capable of delivering true HD content, that’s if the rest of the hardware can cope with this change. There is no other tablet on the market or ones that are planned for release that is able to stand up to the iPad in the battle arena.

More on the specs - the screen size is the typical 9.7-inches, A5X dual core processor (an upgrade from the A5 found in the iPad 2), 1GB RAM, Quad Core GPU, and a 5-megapixel camera at the back called iSight. As you can tell, the specs here are impressive, but something key is missing, a certain voice is not responding.

To the surprise of many, Apple ditched Siri in full on the new iPad. Instead, the company went with a stripped down version of Siri that only does voice dictation. We’re not sure why Apple chose to take this route, and the company didn’t give any explanation.

Models will include a version with a 16GB internal storage, 32GB, and 64GB storage. Apple will be selling the new iPad for $499, $599 and $699 (USD) for 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models, respectively, and the 4G LTE models will go for $629, $729 and $829 in the same storage configurations. No price changes here, while the iPad 2 gets a $100 off its price.

With the amount of power in the new iPad along with iOS 5.1, Apple will surely take many of its competitors to school. Still, Apple has to contend with top Android manufacturers like Samsung, and Nokia with its unseen Windows 8 tablet that is sure to rock the world when it is leaked from somewhere. Apple may find the playing field different this time around, but it has the means to stay relevant, thus still being able defeat competitors.

(Reported by Vamien McKalin, edited by Surojit Chatterjee)