Apple's new iPad sports 3.1-M pixels, rolls out March 16 at $499

By EARL VICTOR L. ROSERO, GMA News

Published March 8, 2012 2:31am

Apple Inc. launched its new iPad in San Francisco, California at about 2 a.m. Manila time. The new iPad has 3.1 million pixels for 2048 by 1536 resolution, a 5 megapixel camera sensor, and is powered by an A5X processor for quad core graphics. "This is the best mobile display that has ever shipped," said Apple Inc. senior vice president for marketing Phillip Schiller. The new iPad records video in 1080 pixels high definition, can take voice dictation, and has 4G wireless. Starting price is $499. Schiller said pre-orders start today and the new device will be in stores by March 16. Tablet dominance

Apple Inc took the wraps off a faster 4G-equipped iPad on Wednesday, hoping the latest version of its tablet can safeguard its dominance as rivals from Amazon to Samsung pile into the market.

CEO Tim Cook, presiding over his biggest product launch since 2011's voice-enabled iPhone 4S, introduced the highly anticipated third iteration of the tablet, which commands upwards of two-thirds of the growing market.

The newest iPad will be capable of operating on a high-speed 4G "LTE" or Long-Term Evolution network. At speeds roughly 10 times faster than current 3G technology, that may help banish the sometimes shaky video quality of older devices.

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

Until now, buyers have been reluctant to shell out extra cash even for iPads with slower 3G connections. The cheaper Wi-Fi-only model - with much more limited Web access - is by far Apple's top-selling one today.

The company is counting on a warm reception to its latest tablet to fend off an increasingly aggressive challenge from Google Inc Android-powered tablets, with Microsoft Corp software-driven devices slated to come soon.

"Everyone's been wondering who will come out with a product that's more amazing that the iPad 2," Cook said.

"Stop wondering: we are."

The global tablet user base reached 67 million in 2011, according to researcher Strategy Analytics.

Earlier in the session, Cook again held forth on what he called a "post-PC world", in which users move increasingly away from traditional desktop and laptop computing and toward an array of portable devices.

And he announced that the company's new $99 Apple TV set-top box, a concept that late CEO Steve Jobs had called a "hobby," now supports high-definition 1080p screen technology.

"Last year alone we sold 172 million post-PC devices," Cook told the audience at the Yerba Buena Center in downtown San Francisco, Apple's preferred venue for product unveilings.

"And this made up 76 percent of our revenues. This is incredible." — with Reuters/ELR, GMA News

Tags: apple, ipad