Cook touted the iPad as the “poster child of the post-PC world” arguing that the PC is no longer the center of our digital world. He went on to say that Apple has sold a total of 172-million post-PC devices — iPod, iPhone and iPad — in 2011 and 315-million to date. These devices made up 76% of Apple’s revenue in Q4 with 62-million iOS devices sold in the quarter.
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Apple sold 15.4-million iPads alone in the Q4, that’s more iPads sold than any PC maker sold PCs.
Cook also mentioned that the company now has 362 retail stores in total with the newest in Amsterdam.
Join us in a sigh of relief as the rumour mill mercifully grinds to a temporary halt and we can reflect on the new additions and changes to Apple’s lineup of products.
New iPad
The new iPad has an RGB Retina Display with 2048 x 1536 pixel — 264ppi — resolution and 44% greater colour saturation.
For interest’s sake, the display has four times the number of pixels than an iPad 2 and 1-million more pixels than a 1080p HDTV.
It runs an A5X dual-core CPU with quad-core GPU.
There’s a new rear-facing iSight camera with a 5MP sensor, backside illumination, 5 element lens, hybrid IR filter and an Apple-designed ISP (image signal processor). The camera has auto exposure, auto-focus, white balance, auto-face detection and auto-focus lock.
Video playback and recording now happen at full HD 1080p aided by image stabilisation and temporal noise reduction.
New voice dictation capabilities are available in English, French, German, and Japanese.
There will be two 4G LTE (72 Mbps) versions of the iPad in the US, one for Verizon and one for AT&T. Both versions are 3G world-ready which means that both will have 3G fallback and can operate on multiple 3G bands around the world. The new iPad delivers 3G at HSPA+ 21Mbps speeds, or dual-carrier HSDPA up to 42Mbps.
iOS personal hotspot is now available on the iPad.
The new iPad is 9.4mm thin, weighs 1.4lbs and battery life is 9 hours on 4G, or 10 hours on 3G (the same as the iPad 2).
Pricing details are as follows. Wi-Fi only: US$499, US$599, and US$699 for 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB. $US629, $US729 and $US829 with 4G — same prices as iPad 2.
There’s a black and a white version and both will be available on 16 March in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.
iPad 2 had a price reduction and the 16GB WiFi-only version now costs US$399 while the 3G version has been reduced to US$529.
There’s also new iLife software available for the iPad.
Apple TV
Apple TV now supports 1080p video and has a revamped user interface with a distinctly iOS flavour.
TV shows will be available on Apple TV the day after they air in the US.
There’s new iTunes Match, Photo Stream and iCloud movie support.
Apple’s Genius recommendations service is now available on Apple TV for movies.
The new version of Apple TV will cost US$99 and drops 16 March.
iTunes
25 billion app downloads.
200 000+ iPad apps.
Movies and TV shows now support 1080p.
iCloud
100 million customers on iCloud.
iCloud now supports movies in the cloud. As with music, you can now access movies you’ve purchased from iCloud.
iOS
iOS 5.1 available today.
Siri
Siri is coming to Japan.
iPhoto for iPad
There’s a new version of iPhoto for iPad available. New features include Smart Browsing, multi-touch editing, professional-quality effects, brushes, Photo Beaming and Photo Journals.
It costs US$4.99 and is available now.
iLife
Updates to Garage Band, iWork and iMovie.
