Is Apple betting the farm on the new iPad (iPad3 or iPadHD or ?)?

[SeaKing]

Is Apple betting the farm on the new iPad (iPad3 or iPadHD or ?)?
Or is this just another "baby step along the way?" Not a great leap forward.

Will people pay for the 4G connection?

1/2 hour video per day = twice the data that a $30/month package delivers.

Currently the cheaper Wi-Fi only iPad is the biggest seller. At $499 this helps Apple only marginally compared to its usual profits. Their phone has been the money maker. Mainly the $499 product has kept the other manufacturers more expensive tablets at bay. (Granted -masterful marketing by Jobs, but he is gone.)

Here is what one "Predictor" says:

What Apple's iPad 3 Will Look Like
Published March 06, 2012, Reuters

"Apple Inc is betting a 4G-equipped iPad will tempt more U.S. consumers to pay extra to watch high-quality video on the go, and in turn, give Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc a revenue boost.

Until now, Apple's fan legion has been reluctant to shell out extra money even for iPads with 3G connections. The cheaper Wi-Fi-only model -- with more limited Web access -- is by far the top-selling one today.

The newest iPad will be capable of operating on a high-speed 4G "LTE," or Long-Term Evolution network, according to a source familiar with the product. At speeds roughly 10 times faster than current 3G technology, that may go a long way toward banishing the sometimes shaky video quality of older devices.

Such a juiced-up device would help boost the telecoms market if consumers catch on and can be enticed to pay more, some analysts said. The global tablet user base already reached 67 million in 2011, according to researcher Strategy Analytics.

"It's going to dramatically improve video consumption," said UBS analyst John Hodulik. "This is the device people want. They want the fastest speed. They want high resolution."

Apple, AT&T and Verizon declined to comment..."

http://www.foxbusiness.com/technolog...ill-look-like/

We know the "real" Apple lovers will gather in hordes under the tree, waiting for this new delicacy to drop into their lives. They always do even for just a change of color.

Or will they?

[ucfgrad93]

I think this will be a huge success just like the earlier versions of the iPad.

[HansTWN]

The real test for new Apple products will come next year, when all those that Steve still had in the pipeline have shipped. The iPad3 will be successful, but Android devices have caught up, a wave of devices with high resolution screens is coming in the next few months and the interface is a smooth as silk running Tegra 3. By this time next year, the iPad's market share will likely be below 30%, trending down to iPhone levels.

[RainingLemur]

I imagine that whomever provides the 4G/LTE will be raking in the dough with all the data that will be used. Probably gonna have a hefty amount of overages for people who don't have any grandfathered unlimited data.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Of course it will be a huge success and well deserved as Apple is innovating again and is the first company to offer screens with a higher than 1024x768 resolution!

[ucfgrad93]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

By this time next year, the iPad's market share will likely be below 30%, trending down to iPhone levels.

Wanna bet?

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by ucfgrad93

Wanna bet?

They have dropped to 52% in the tablet market last year, so this isn't a big step. The Tsunami is coming right at them.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

Of course it will be a huge success and well deserved as Apple is innovating again and is the first company to offer screens with a higher than 1024x768 resolution!

Most Android tablets are 1280x800, even new phones offer 1280x720. Asus has announced the 1920x1080 transformer, and there are rumors Samsung has a hi res tablet on the works. It may surprise you, but apple is not necessarily the first to bring new technology to the market, though they seem to have a way to stuff that idea in people's minds.

But yes, the next ipad will sell well, the queues will be longer than ever, it will be magical and, at the end of the day, it will be an overpriced tablet.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by afv011

But yes, the next ipad will sell well, the queues will be longer than ever, it will be magical and, at the end of the day, it will be an overpriced tablet.

Magical is right. I hear Tim Cook has an arrangement with the National Weather Service to provide rainbows over every store selling iPads on launch day. Also, each person entering the store will be greeted by a unicorn who'll blow sparkles on them.

Sighhh... to be a fanboy on launch day. One can dream.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Magical is right. I hear Tim Cook has an arrangement with the National Weather Service to provide rainbows over every store selling iPads on launch day. Also, each person entering the store will be greeted by a unicorn who'll blow sparkles on them.

Sighhh... to be a fanboy on launch day. One can dream.

I take a banana over that fanboy feeling any day! And I am not even a monkey.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by afv011

It may surprise you, but apple is not necessarily the first to bring new technology to the market, though they seem to have a way to stuff that idea in people's minds

Jobs had a way of making common implementation appear distinctive by offering an overall sense of purpose that informed the design, specs, functionality and HW/SW integration of a given device. Part of the reason people often think Apple is the first is because they'd never seen a device which looked the way it did, or seemed to have been designed with a one-phrase marketing slogan built into its DNA, until Apple brought it out.

There's also a marketed sense of space around Apple's concept-objects -- an idea of fresh air that people seem to have inhaled unthinkingly -- which consumers seem to identify with personal freedom, and which hinges on the paradox of branded individuality.

Google is addressing the success of Apple's hardware-software integration by serial-partnering with Asus, Samsung and (at first) HTC. Aesthetically, I'd prefer them to partner with Samsung exclusively, since S always has better screens than Asus. Or better, combine the optimization and feature-packed accessibility of Asus with the screens and keyboards of Samsung.

Either way, it's a more forward-thinking attack on Apple than Microsoft's. Google wants integration which is is more flexible than Apple's and potentially just as seamless for the user who *doesn't* need fresh-air marketing.

The test for Apple will be whether Jobs's successors can not only imitate his single-concept mindset in obsessiveness and inspiration but actually inhabit it.

Otherwise, they'll be in the same position as everyone else: The cautious heirs of someone else's success, carefully mimicking a dynamic tyro whose cult, history and legacy wealth are false clues to the secret of their former domination.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by SeaKing

Is Apple betting the farm on the new iPad (iPad3 or iPadHD or ?)?

Betting the farm???
That implies that if this model failed Apple would risk losing everything.
For a company whose cash reserves are expected to break $100 Billion this quarter, that is a ridiculous idea.

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

Betting the farm???
That implies that if this model failed Apple would risk losing everything.
For a company whose cash reserves are expected to break $100 Billion this quarter, that is a ridiculous idea.

Ah, little grasshopper. You don't understand. You don't see the cricket.

Apple's farm is the "Apple Mystique!"
The idea that Apple is wonderful, magical, and ""special.""

The last iPhone was not so much a big deal. Oh wait, there is Siri! Apple wins again, but not at the big Mobile Show as I mention a few threads away. But still Siri distracts from a "less than ""best in the show experience"" and actually a disappointment from Apple fans as well.

Now we are on tether hooks again waiting for the magician to remove the curtain. Wait the magician is gone. What is behind the curtain? A device that will drain more and more money from the faithful Apple customers once they purchase it. Data is no longer cheap! Unless Apple has some new really wonderful data deal with Verizon and AT&T and others, the new iPad may just be another very expensive paper weight. Pretty though!

Losing the farm means "disappointment" and the loss of the "magic illusion."

Money in the bank is great. That part of the "old" magic will last longer than the illusion.

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Magical is right. I hear Tim Cook has an arrangement with the National Weather Service to provide rainbows over every store selling iPads on launch day. Also, each person entering the store will be greeted by a unicorn who'll blow sparkles on them.

Sighhh... to be a fanboy on launch day. One can dream.

I am not at all into "yet another overpriced tablet...", but unicorn blowing sparkles.... That might move me to get in line.. ...WAIT ! Just two things to clear before to be sure it's the real thing...the unicorn has to be a baby one, and regarding the sparkles, we are talking about the purple ones, right ? Because the pinky orangy ones, not so much.....

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by ucfgrad93

Wanna bet?

+1
Apple betting the farm?
Let's be realistic, people!
Apple is now in the same class as Microsoft and very few other big companies as companies that can operate for *years* without a single cent of revenue and not even blink.
Look at how long Sony has endured in the face of floundering management, mediocre to laughably bad products, and billion-dollar losses year after year.
Edit: Apple isn't going away regardless of what kind of product the third iPad turns out to be.

As for market share; it is highly over-rated as a metric for corporate success as well as market domination. Let's not forget that Palm used to maintain an enormous market share lead over PocketPC right up to the point Palm finances collapsed. The name of the game is profits and not all customers are created equal. Considering that the tablet landscape includes dozens of vendors pushing generic supercheap Android tablets it would hardly be impossible for Apple to drop to well under 50% and still be the *only* tablet vendor of any relevance, just as IBM was still head and shoulders and ankles above all their competitors in the mid 80's during the peak of the PC-clone era.

The real question is whether or not any competitor other than Apple will make significant *profits* from the sale of tablets. (Keeping in mind that Amazon, B&N, and to a lesser extent Kobo, make the bulk of their profits from content instead of the hardware.)

The tablet environment that is shaping up--high-spec iPads and WinPads at the $500+ price point and content-assisted mid-range products at the low end--is going to put the squeeze on the profitability of the hardware-only vendors who are going to have a hard time matching either benchmark.

As young as the ebook business is, the webpad/tablet business is even younger. In PC terms it is barely 1980.

The real game hasn't even started.