Apple iPad debut set for April 3
On Friday, March 5, Apple Inc announced the revolutionary new iPad will debut in stores on April 3. This new launch date represents a small delay for the netbook’s launch, but Apple officials sweetened the news with their announcement that they also will launch iPad in Canada, Australia, and much of Europe during April. An indication of the market’s eagerness and excitement about the new product, Apple shares rose 4% on the tech-heavy Nasdaq immediately after the announcements. Market analysts had expressed concern that manufacturing difficulties were slowing the iPad’s debut.
Steve Jobs first showed-off Apple’s latest technological wonder in January, setting tech-lovers a-buzz and sending their expectations even higher than when Apple first introduced the iPhone in 2007. At iPod’s coming-out, however, Jobs did not set a firm date for the netbook’s arrival in stores, and he said absolutely nothing about international distribution. Friday’s announcement included some details about iPad’s late-April launch in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. Apple Inc also plans bravely to market iPad against its chief rivals in Japan.
Featuring a 9.7-inch touch screen and motion sensitivity similar to the iPhone’s, iPad promises users the ultimate communications tool developed specifically for use in a mobile environment. In other words, iPad does not replace your laptop computer, but it easily will render other handheld devices obsolete, or at least mediocre by comparison. The iPad combines powerful internet capability with the hundreds of iPhone apps, and it allows both full-featured gaming and the capacity to read digital books. Industry analysts predict brisk sales among avid computer and internet gamers, who will appreciate iPad’s speed and responsiveness; and they predict similarly brisk sales among college students, especially students at online university’s, because iPad will make their studies completely portable. iPad’s digital reader already attracts educators, who recognize the possibilities for netbooks in classroom use even in kindergarten, and Apple products always have been educators’ first choice.
