Archive for March, 2011
March 14th, 2011 at 3:55 PM EST | by inu846W
An Apple spokesperson via The Loop said:
“Demand for the next generation iPad 2 has been amazing. We are working hard to get iPad 2 into the hands of every customer who wants one as quickly as possible.”
Apple also neglected to mention the number of iPad 2s sold since last Friday. Considering there was nary an iPad 2 to be found at a retail store this morning, across the country, it’s likely Apple lived up to some analysts’ estimates that iPad 2 sales could reach at least 500,000 units this past weekend.
AppleBitch.com made note of a rumor that some Apple retail stores may open an hour early Tuesday morning in anticipation of large crowds wanting to clean up on replenished iPad 2 stock. “If the Apple Stores were re-stocked today, the iPad 2 would not be sold until tomorrow”. Calls to some Apple stores made by AppleBitch and MacRumors confirm some are opening an hour early tomorrow, at 9am.
Fortune sums up analyst speculation on this past weekend’s iPad 2 sales:
Most analysts were cautious, fearing perhaps that whatever they wrote would soon be overtaken by an Apple (AAPL) press release. Most, like Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster, stuck with 500,000 units. But Baird’s William Power estimated that Apple sold “roughly 1 million” the first weekend, Wedbush’s Scott Sutherland “wouldn’t be surprised” by that number and Global Equities Trip Chowdhry thought Apple “may have sold” three times as many iPad 2s as iPad 1s its first weekend, which amounts to the same thing.
Deutsche Bank’s Chris Whitmore thinks Apple has gained an “insurmountable lead” in the tablet market in a note to investors today. During a poll of 100 iPad 2 retailers, Whitmore found all of them out of stock by yesterday.
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March 14th, 2011 at 12:00 PM EST | by inu846W
iFixit’s first teardown of a case shows Apple’s new Smart Cover for iPad 2 is filled with 21 magnets. Smart Cover is the latest accessory iPad 2 cover from Apple that differs in many ways from the previous iPad case the tablet maker offered for the first-generation.
sleeper sensor(left), and magnets inside iPad for keeping cover closed
Some highlights from the Smart Cover case teardown include:
- 10 magnets in iPad 2, 21 in the Smart Cover.
- no special properties to magnets like “correlated magnets“.
- One magnet is used to turn off the screen, others are use to hold the cover to the iPad or to create the triangular shape for the cover’s material to be used as a stand.
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March 14th, 2011 at 10:50 AM EST | by inu846W
It’s looking more likely that Apple sold close to, or over 500,000 iPad 2s this weekend. A report from Deutsche Bank’s Chris Whitmore indicated Apple and retailers selling the iPad 2 eventually ran out of stock in the past day or two.
Calls made by Whitmore to about 100 stores selling iPad 2 showed the device was selling like hot cakes on a cold day. He talked to about 50 Apple stores, 20 Best Buys and Walmarts, and a few AT&T and Verizon stores.
“Our checks pointed to a shocking 100% stock out rate across Apple/authorized retail stores just a few hours into the official launch Friday evening, contributing to what we believe was one of the company’s most successful product launches to date.”
iPad 2 retailers should be getting new shipments of the device this week. Visit our Buy iPad 2 page to see which retailers are near you. Call the store and find out when they’ll be able to ease your iPad 2 fix.
If you choose to buy iPad 2 online, apple.com has a waiting period of 3-4 weeks before shipping, att.com has a 2-3 weeks waiting period before shipping.
iPad News Via: forbes.cnn.com
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March 14th, 2011 at 10:20 AM EST | by inu846W
via Forbes: Apple Fifth Avenue Store Friday afternoon. Photo: PED
Piper Jaffray conducted a poll of 236 people who were waiting in line to buy iPad 2 on Friday in New York and Minneapolis. Out of those pollers, 70 percent were new to iPad and have never owned the device before. Half of the people polled were PC users, the other half Mac users. Almost half of them were going to purchase the 3G iPad 2 model.
Gene Muster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, thinks this is a great sign for Apple as it shows solid growth for iPad in the tablet market.
“We believe this shows Apple is expanding its base of iPad users, which is critical to maintaining its early lead in the growing tablet market. As the user base grows Apple’s lead widens, and the company has a proven track record of building unmatched brand loyalty, which we believe will be a potent combination as the tablet market evolves.”
The firm also believes Apple sold about 500,000 iPad 2s over the weekend.
Check out a screenshot of the poll questions ans answers after the break.
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March 14th, 2011 at 9:53 AM EST | by inu846W
The graphics processing unit in iPad 2 has been identified as the PowerVR SGX543MP2, as step up in speed and performance from its previous version found in iPad 1 and iPhone 4.
Anadtech has run some benchmark tests for speed and performance of iPad 2 against the first-generation iPad and its most worthwhile competition, the Motorola Xoom.
Architecturally the 543MP2 has more than twice the compute horsepower of the SGX 535 used in Apple’s A4. Each shader pipeline can execute twice the number of instructions per clock as the SGX 535, and then there are four times as many pipes in an SGX 543MP2 as there are in a 535. There are also efficiency improvements as well. Hidden surface removal works at twice the rate in the 543MP2 as it did in the 535.
Apple claimed an improved 9x graphics speed with the new iPad 2 at the media event to announce the new tablet on March 2. Anadtech was not able to confirm that claim, but approached 7x speed in the various tests they performed with different games. In each graphics test, iPad 2 was much faster than the Xoom.
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March 14th, 2011 at 9:27 AM EST | by inu846W
A new exploit was found in Apple’s iOS 4.3, much to the delight of jailbreaking enthusiasts everywhere. Comex, the jailbreaking guru and leader in providing the public with the means to expand the use of their iOS devices, was able to jailbreak his own white iPad 2 and install Cydia on it.
It’s not yet known when a public release of the latest jailbreak version will be available, but we’ll let you know as soon as it happens. FaceTime over 3G, instead of only through WiFi as Apple has restricted it, is a new feature at the top of everybody’s jailbreaking wish list.
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