David posted on March 03, 2011 12:28
With a rare pancreatic disease to fight and an unsteady health, the gaunt looking Apple's Steve made a surprise return to the centre stage here in California last night.
The world waited with bated eyes not as much for the product as the man who created it.
Job who is on an indefinite leave of absence on health grounds was not expected to lead the introduction but he showed up all the same. 'We've been working hard on this product for a while and I just didn't want to miss today', he said.
He unveiled IPad 2 which he described as featuring faster processor, improved graphics, and front and rear cameras.
In an industry with fierce competition, it was a relieve that Job is still about. The shareholders loved it and market responded by sending APPLE stocks higher by 2 percent on NASDAQ moments after Job took the centre stage. It later gave up the gains as feature details emerged.
Although figures remain below market expectations, Apple nonetheless remain dominant in the touchscreen tablet device market. Since the launch of IPad in April 2010 and the remarkable success enjoyed by the company in the tablet device category market, groups such as Cisco, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Research in Motion, Sasung and ZTE have all launched their rival devices.
Dwindling Market Share
Apple will hope it has found in iPad2 the product to keep the company ahead of its competitors. According to
Strategy Analytics' report released in November 2010, Google Inc.’s Android software boosted its share of tablet device hardware almost 10-fold in the fourth quarter thus narrowing the lead of Apple IPad. It was a stark contrast to an earlier report which gave Apple a 95 percent share of the market as late as September 2010.
According to Job, IPad2 represents a major step forward with a 'completely new design'.
Mr Jobs said: 'What is iPad 2. What have we learned? It is an all new design. It's a completely new design. And it's dramatically faster.'
It is thinner, lighter and dramatically faster than the original, while it has cameras on the front and back for the first time to allow for video conferencing.