In the second stage of a two-part rollout,Apple Inc on Friday began selling the pricier, high-speed wireless version of the iPad in the United States, following the successful launch of the short-range Wi-Fi tablet earlier this month.

The more people know about the iPad, the less they want to buy one, according to a study released Friday. But, are we expecting too much?

The study seems to confirm the iPad as Apple's least exciting announcement in years. And the company is feeling the backlash that comes from not delivering on the hype.

Retrevo, an online marketplace for consumer electronics, surveyed 1,000 of its customers and found that the iPad's Jan. 27 announcement did more to snuff out customer interest than to spark it.
That's not surprising when all Apple introduced was just a supersized (and superexpensive at the high end) iPod touch. My friend and fellow pundit Larry Magid described as the iPad as "underwhelming."

I agree, the iPad is underwhelming, especially as a business device. And the more people heard about the iPad, the less they wanted one, according to Retrevo.

"The word definitely got out as the number of respondents saying they had heard about the tablet rose from 37% shortly before the announcement to over 80% after the media frenzy on January 27th," Retrevo said Friday in a blog post.

"Unfortunately for Apple, the number if respondents saying they had heard about the tablet but were not interested in buying one, doubled from 25% before the announcement to over 50% following the announcement."

Of course, that 50 percent who are interested is plenty to make the product a success, provided many of them actually become buyers. (Learn more about the study in this story by Greg Keizer).

I think we may be being a bit hard on the iPad. I still don't think it will become a big enterprise computing tool, even if it does "run" Windows 7 (as a virtualized desktop). I also don't think traditional mobile line-of-business applications--think your UPS driver--will start carrying iPads.

But, entertainment, gaming, and e-reading, especially in education, could still make the iPad quite a winner.

Apple already has the ecosystem in place--developers, content, shopping--to make the platform immediately useful when it arrives.

The iPad appears to be an excellent e-reader, though I said that about the Nook before it shipped, too. In this case, however, enough pre-production iPads have been around that I feel pretty confident.

I still don't feel the need for an iPad, but I do expect to invest in an e-reader soon and am glad I didn't get a Nook for Christmas.

Now, I want to wait a bit and see how the devices, content pricing, and content availability shake-out. At some future moment, the combination of e-reader features/content and interesting apps (not available on my iPhone) could convince me.

So, while I don't see an iPad in my immediate future, I am closer to buying one--or perhaps a competitor--than I was before the announcement. I still wouldn't say I want an iPad. But, I see how I might be convinced in the future.
Source:Yahoo News

An analyst with Needham & Company has projected that Apple will sell 2 million iPads this year with an additional 6M being sold in 2011. The sales will come at the expense of Apple�s iPod Touch, according to reports today.

Sales will begin moderately. The anticipated spike in sales will occur after �the arrival of a catalyst,� but the report did not specify what that incentive would be. The iTunes store worked before, and it may work again.

That is evidenced by reports of interactive textbooks headed to the iPad. The iPad also could appeal to people who have light computing requirements such as seniors.

In comparison, the iPhone was much more mass market. Over 1 million iPhones were sold within 71 days of its introduction, and sold over 8 million units last quarter. The iPhone has contributed remarkably to Apple�s revenues�without massively cannibalizing the sales of iPods. The iPad could be viewed as a substitute for the iPod Touch.

The thing to keep in mind is that this is only the first iteration of the iPad. There�s no shortage of speculation about what Apple may or may deliver when the iPad ships � from evidence of a camera to an �intelligent bezel.� We don�t know the entire story of what �it� is yet, or what it will become. The iPad could very well end up carrying other Apple products.

Whether those reports are accurate or not, they do prove one thing: there is no shortage of potential for the tablet category. Even if Google enters the market, increased category awareness and growth should only support Apple�s sales.

Fresh off the unveiling of Apple�s iPad, we have a whole new batch of tablet rumors�this time regarding a Google Chrome-based tablet device. The Chromium Project, the core behind the development of the Chrome operating system, has released a number of mockups and early concepts regarding what a Chrome-based tablet PC might be.

Next to Apple, Google is arguably the most-qualified to launch a tablet device capable of being a game changer. One thing that Apple and Google have in common is that they tend to think outside of the mainstream and are capable of creating paradigm-shifting innovation.

After all of the hype, rumors, and speculation, the Apple iPad is really more of a giant iPod touch than a full computer. While some tablets, like the HP Slate unveiled by Steve Ballmer at the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), operate on Windows 7 or some other desktop operating system, the iPad runs the iPhone mobile operating system rather than Apple�s Mac OS X.

An �iPhone on steroids�, as many have dubbed it, may not seem very compelling, but the reality is that the iPad looks to be a very capable device for what it�s designed to do. The fact that it runs the vast library of apps available in the iTunes App Store gives users tens of thousands of free and cheap programs to choose from, and developers will soon create new apps uniquely suited for the iPad form factor.

Based on the early conceptual ideas regarding the Chrome tablet, Google may be taking a completely different, yet equally innovative, approach to the tablet PC. Whereas the Apple iPad revolves around apps�similar to the popular iPhone and iPod touch devices, the Chrome tablet takes a Web-based doc, or file-centric approach.

The very concept of the Chrome OS revolves around creating a Web-centric operating system that sheds all of the excess weight and frivolous features of standard desktop operating system, and provides a streamlined Web browser interface that enables users to interact with Web-based services like Google Docs, Gmail, Picassa, etc.

The tablet C page on the Chromium site has a variety of mock photos depicting what a Chrome-based tablet might look like. It also lists some of the design elements currently under consideration:
Keyboard interaction with the screen: anchored, split, attached to focus.
Launchers as an overlay, providing touch or search as means to access web sites.
Contextual actions triggered via dwell.
Zooming UI for multiple tabs
Tabs presented along the side of the screen
Creating multiple browsers on screen using a launcher

Aesthetics and user interface aside, a Chrome OS tablet may make a better business tool than the Apple iPad for a few reasons. First, many businesses have existing Web-based tools and applications. A tablet that works seamlessly with the Web would be a more natural extension of existing business tools than a tablet PC centered around iPhone apps.

The nature of Google Docs, Gmail, Google Wave, and other tools from Google allow for seamless synchronization between the tablet, the desktop, the mobile phone, and any other platform because the tools and the data reside online.

The fact that the applications and data are Web-based also makes it easier to share data with other users and collaborate�in real-time, or not�with peers, partners, or customers.

Finally, the Chrome operating system is open-source which enables businesses to freely customize it to fit their needs, or develop tools for it that integrate with other systems and improve business processes. Further, they can deploy those tools without having to get approval from Google, and without having to make them available to the general public in the app store.

Don�t get me wrong, the iPad actually has way more business potential than many give it credit for. Once it arrives, I have faith that new tools will continue to be developed to enhance its business functionality even farther. And, let�s face it, the iPad has been officially announced and will be available soon while the Chrome tablet is pure speculation, so the iPad wins in that department as well.

Whether or not the Chrome tablet ends up being a better business tool than the iPad will remain to be seen, if and when a Chrome-based tablet actually exists.

140,000 apps in its store, it�s no perturbation that Apple seamlessly joint them with the iPad. The Facebook app, for instance, looks meet like what you see from the app outlet Facebook.

Apple also showed an ESPN snowmobile racing spirited, purchased aright off the existing app keep.

The app outlet is full onto the iPad, and developers are foretold to educate new
games specifically for the new instrumentation.

In fact, various possess already been complete. For example, GameLoft rewrote its line Nova for the iPad�s bigger block, including adding a minimap you can increase with your fingers, or turning your fingers around a door interlace to unsettled it.

140,000 apps in its store, it�s no perturbation that Apple seamlessly joint them with the iPad. The Facebook app, for instance, looks meet like what you see from the app outlet Facebook.

Apple also showed an ESPN snowmobile racing spirited, purchased aright off the existing app keep.

The app outlet is full onto the iPad, and developers are foretold to educate new games specifically for the new instrumentation.

In fact, various possess already been complete. For example, GameLoft rewrote its line Nova for the iPad�s bigger block, including adding a minimap you can increase with your fingers, or turning your fingers around a door interlace to unsettled it.

The New York Times also has a new app for the iPad. You can save articles and read them from your iPhone, resize text, and change the number of columns you see, something you can�t do with any e-book reader.
Brushes is a painting app that lets you create art using finger gestures. Art created using this app has appeared on three New Yorker covers. The iPad version has a new color palette, the same brushes from the iPhone app, a 32X zoom ability, and painting using your fingers. You can tap a replay button to watch how you painted a picture.

Electronic Arts already has 40 apps in the app store. Now it�s working on games optimized for the iPad. EA�s spokesperson claims it�s like watching an HDTV game right in front of your eyes. Tap on the car to see the interior. Swipe your finger up and down to change gears. Tap the rear-view mirror to look behind you.
MLB.com is also working on apps for the iPad. Gameday, which lets you watch baseball games graphically, shows player stat cards, video highlights as the game goes on, box scores, field dimensions, and batter/pitcher matchups. You can also watch games live from MLB.com enhanced with many of the same features.

Steve Jobs has fired the starting pistol in the race to bring the iPad to the UK, with several mobile phone operators and retailer Carphone Warehouse interested in selling Apple's new tablet computer to consumers this side of the Atlantic.

Jobs announced on Wednesday that a version of the device that can access
3G mobile phone networks as well as Wi-Fi will start shipping in the US in April under a deal with AT&T, which already supplies the iPhone in North America. Mobile phone companies in the UK � O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone � are looking to strike similar deals in Europe ahead of a launch later in the year.

Andrew Harrison, UK chief executive of the Carphone Warehouse, welcomed news of the Apple device, adding: "To me, the really interesting thing is what we are seeing is devices designed with how the consumer uses the internet very much in mind, rather than just a computer that was made for business use trying to fit the consumer."

Carphone Warehouse, Europe's largest independent mobile phone retailer, was Apple's exclusive third party retail partner for the iPhone and Harrison obviously hopes to repeat the experience with the iPad.

"Our perspective is we play in the world of connectivity and particularly mobile connectivity and this device fits well within that; we think there will be a whole range of them. This is an extension of a smartphone perhaps even more than it being a smaller PC. It is much more in the territory that we operate in," he said

"We have done a phenomenal job with the iPhone and smartphones in general and bringing connectivity is something we would be delighted to talk to Apple about."

But the AT&T deal shows that Apple may be approaching the involvement of mobile phone operators with the iPad in a very different way from the way that it uses them for the iPhone.

Traditionally, mobile phone companies "subsidise" the up-front cost of hardware � usually mobile phones, but increasingly laptops � in return for persuading a customer to sign up to a long-term contract. The operator assumes it will make the subsidy back over the life of the contract. That is how the iPhone is sold in the US and Europe, while even Google followed this model with its Nexus One, signing a deal with T-Mobile in the US which sees the phone's $529 price tag fall to $179 in return for signing a contract. Vodafone is expected to sell the Nexus One in the UK at roughly the same price point as the iPhone.

Already several UK mobile phone companies subsidise the cost of laptops to persuade customers to sign up for long-term mobile broadband contracts. Anyone signing up to a two-year mobile broadband deal with T-Mobile at �40 a month, for instance, gets a free Sony Vaio laptop worth �499.

But with the iPad, Apple has forced AT&T to give up on persuading customers to sign long-term contracts. Instead the iPad will effectively be available on what in Europe would be seen as a 30-day rolling SIM-only contract such as those offered by O2 and Vodafone.

Customers have two pricing options in the US, a mere 250MB of data for $14.99 a month, or unlimited data for $29.99 a month. That means that while the basic version of the iPad � without wireless capabilities � will start at $499, the 3G version of the device will start at $629. Under the traditional operator model, the 3G version of the device would have been cheaper.

"It does not look as though it has the traditional subsidy model," said Harrison. "If you put Wi-Fi and 3G in it, it is actually more expensive not less expensive."

In a note on AT&T following the news, Jonathan Schildkraut, analyst at Jefferies & Co investment bank said the tariffs are "in line with the current data add-on options available with voice packages, and well below the roughly $60 plans currently offered by wireless carriers for a laptop card. The prepaid plan can be activated directly from the iPad and, because there is no contract, can be canceled at anytime."

"Given the prepaid nature of the service associated with this product, including the no contract/cancel at any time feature, we expect that AT&T would not have to subsidise the device. We would view this as a significant positive � given the large subsidy associated with the iPhone (estimated at up to $400). Additionally, this would imply better overall economics around the device (without the initial margin dilution of an iPhone sale)," he said
 "The flip-side, of course, is that the usage patterns of this type of device are unknown. However, given the multimedia capabilities, and the video functionality in particular, we would assume that iPad could be another network hog. This could drive incremental congestion issues on AT&T's already strained network � leading to further network dissatisfaction, and potentially a need for ongoing higher levels of capital spending".

In other words, not getting people to sign a contract gives the operator very little chance to factor the potential cost of future infrastructure investment into its pricing plans. Then there is the worry that applications which allow internet telephony � such as Truphone and Skype, which are already available on the iPhone and will port to the iPad � will further erode the network's profitable voice and text traffic.

Apple initially sold the iPhone through exclusive partners in the US, UK, France and Germany, but for the iPad the British mobile phone companies are not expecting Apple to offer exclusivity. None of the mobile phone companies was willing to comment on the iPad.

Incidentally, anyone who already has a wireless broadband "dongle" under a long-term contract and is thinking about buying an iPad and putting the SIM card from their laptop card into the iPad will be disappointed. The iPad is the first mass-market mobile device to use micro-Sim cards, which are smaller than the current range of Sim cards and were designed for small consumer gadgets such as Birmingham-based Lok8u's range of wireless-enabled wrist watches.

The iPad is also likely to prove a major headache for makers of similar devices, especially Taiwan's Asus which recently announced plans for its own tablet, and Nokia which last year unveiled a "booklet" computer with built-in 3G. There are also understood to be several tablet computers running Google's Android software in the works, with France's Archos rumoured to be planning to release one in March.