If you are not aware of it yet the cat is already out of the bag as Apple formally announced “The New IPad”, whether it will be iPad 2s or iPad 3 nobody knows yet except Apple herself. They will sell iPad 2 alongside the new iPad which now can be bought at a bargain price of $399 for the Wifi-only model or $200 more if you want the 3G connectivity suite. The iPad’s entry level price strategy will definitely benefit Apple and gain more market share of the lower-end (price wise) tablets in the market from some of their competitors whose strategy is to undercut them in pricing with competing tablets like Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0, Asus Eee Transformer among others. By lowering the entry level price for basic model they also become more attractive to volume buyers such as schools, libraries etc.
What does the new iPad 2x/3 have? Basically it looks very similar to current iPad 2 with some new tweaks and buffs under the hood. The Retina display on the new iPad features a 2048-by-1536 resolution, Its got new 5-megapixel iSight Camera that supports HD Video Recording up to 1080p resolution, to complement the awesome new generation retina display incorporated into it they’ve done awesome job buffing the camera giving it f2.4 aperture in 5 elements lenses which is similar construction than your typical DSLR design.
It is also the most connected iPad yet by design, The new iPad supports fast cellular networks the world over — up to 4G LTE.2 it also works on GSM/UMTS worldwide network technologies including HSPA+ and DC-HSPDA which is the fastest 3G networks to date. Download speed said to be up to 42 Mbps with DC-HSDPA and up to 21.1 Mbps with HSPA+
On the hardware side the new iPad is powered by A5X with quad-core graphics which increase up to four times the pixel of iPad 2, gamers and game developers will surely love the graphics boost! The new hardware buff increases performance while still maintaining the 10-hour battery life which is quite good.
The target customers for the new Apple iPad are those who want highest end tablets money can buy, while Apple maintaining the older line-up for those on a budget and volume buyers which is quite clever.
So folks, friends and fan-boys mark your calendar, March 16th is the day! The new iPad will sell starting from $499 for the entry level 16GB WiFi model while expect to shell out around $829 bucks for the high-end 64 GB version with 4G. Apple starting to accept Pre-orders since yesterday in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Hongkong, Singapore and Australia (sorry Kiwis we cannot buy this yet here as usual!) while the rest of the word (yey!) will get their hands on the new iPad 23rd March.
Lastly, Including Hong Kong in the list of the counties and territories to get the new iPad on the 16th seems like a bad news to most grey market parallel importers haha.
