Ever since that media event on Wednesday at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, consumers, bloggers, analysts – in fact everybody in and around the greater gadget-sphere has been talking about Apple’s "new iPad" with scarcely any relent.
Understandably so, though. After all, its feature list is exceptional, and finally implements some of that delicious new hardware we’ve craved and pined for. The long overdue introduction of the Retina display is just the icing on the cake – a cake which packs in quad-core graphics, an iSmart camera, and, of course, 4G LTE compatibility. None of these new features would be of any use, though, if the battery didn’t have the endurance, but the new juice pack has increased in capacity by 70%. This means that, theoretically, the battery performance should be on par with that of its predecessor, although we’re rather cautious when assuming battery performance – especially when we’re dealing with a company still haunted by the iPhone 4S battery woes.
Amid all the excitement, the announcement that the iPad 2 would be dropping $100 was almost cast aside. Although the "new iPad" is wonderful, lest we forget that the iPad 2 has been the Dean of the tablet market for the last year, showing a clean pair of heels to rivaling efforts.
Now, one of the key advantages Android tablets have over iPad is that they’re invariably cheaper. For those unwilling to spend big, the likes of the Samsung Galaxy 10.1 have always been a great failsafe for consumers, giving tablets running Google’s mobile OS a place in the Apple-dominated market.
With $100 knocked off the price of an already untouchable device, not only will Apple certainly have two generations of devices perched at the summit of every tablet-based numbers count-up, but the lower price point almost removes the floor from below the chasing pack. How are the likes of Samsung going to be able to trouble the new iPad when the elusive, Road Runner that was the iPad 2 is now even more of a favorable prospect to a consumer?
I don’t have the answers, and judging by the lopsided market shares of Apple vs everybody else, none of the main manufacturers seem to have the formula either.
What can they do to halt the Apple juggernaut? Is it even halt-able? Leave your thoughts on our G+ or Facebook pages – we’d love to hear them!
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