The new iPad

I had a speculative post on the next iPad last week and turns out, much of it was true. And one of the suggested pricing options ended up being the chosen one. Obviously, much of it was writing on the wall. Nevertheless, Apple delivered on much of what was expected. Without further ado, here is what they unveiled today. The new iPad is a significant upgrade to the already bestselling and by far the most compelling tablet in the market today. While retaining the same price as its predecessor, the new iPad offers a significant step up to the older model with a bunch of hardware updates. Here are the key new features in the new iPad.1. Retina DisplayThis may be the most important and in-your-face change at first glance on the new iPad. The screen resolution of the tablet has been bumped up significantly to 2048 x 1536. With the 9.7 inch display, that sizes up to a massive 3.1 million total pixels at 264 ppi. What this means is that the new iPad will have by far the best tablet display in the market and one that literally pops. Given the added 40% color saturation, the screen will be sharper, brighter and richer. This alone will make using it a highly pleasurable experience.2. Upgraded processorThe iPad2 uses a dual core A5 chip and the new iPad utilizes a quad-core chip for graphics (GPU) while continuing to use a dual-core CPU. Why does this matter?. For normal applications, this will mean nothing given how fluid they are with the iPad2. But for games and other graphics intensive applications like the newly announced version of iMovie or Autodesk Sketchbook Pro or Adobe Photoshop Touch, this will mean a significant performance improvement. Games are already the largest segment of downloaded apps in the AppStore. This trend will continue with a much more capable processor that will enable more higher end games that start to compete with handheld consoles and heck, even the PS3 and XBOX360 soon.3. Better Camera with 1080P video recordingOne of the few complaints on the iPad2 was its lousy rear camera. For a company that has had excellent cameras on its iMac/Macbooks and fantastic optics on its iPhone line, the iPad2 camera was a big disappointment. The new iPad boasts of what they call the iSight camera. This 5MP shooter has an excellent sensor- akin to the one on the iPhone 4S. This camera can shoot 1080P videos which will now make it a ubiquitous device for tourists to carry.4. LTE, HSPA+ and DC-HSDPAThe previous generation iPad supported HSDPA 7.2 Mbps on worldwide 3G networks. With the new iPad, Apple reaches further and is offering LTE support for upto 73 Mbps and DC-HSDPA support for 42 Mbps peak and HSPA+ throughput for 21 Mbps. In countries where any or one of these networks are deployed, there should be a significant bump up in browsing speeds. The cellular enabled model comes at a significant premium of course -$130 extra (appropriate premium around the world) on top of the equivalent WiFi model. For travelers and business users, the faster network support should be a welcome change.In addition to these major upgrades, there are some minor upgrades. Bluetooth 4.0 is now supported on the iPad. While most peripherals are currently using Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR, as newer peripherals arrive, 4.0 will become the standard. 4.0 allows for low energy devices to operate on Bluetooth technology. Apple's own apps like iPhoto, Garage Band and iWork have been upgraded to make full use of the bigger display.Given the battery hogging nature of the LTE radio, it is given that Apple has a larger capacity battery under the hood - the new iPad boasts of a 42.5 Wh battery compared to a 25 Wh one in iPad 2.. This results in a slightly thicker profile (0.37 inches vs. 0.34 inches for iPad2) and an additional heft (1.44 pounds vs. 1.33 pounds). But this should be almost imperceptible.The biggest announcement was probably the least noticed one. The iPad2 will continue to be sold for a new price of $399 (appropriately lower cost in the rest of the world). This is a very big deal. Most of the high end Android tablets currently being sold are competing with the iPad 2 on price. With this one move, Apple has effectively moved into their turf with a far more compelling product with an App rich eco-system. This will also set a challenge for the yet to be launched Windows 8 tablets in terms of pricing and market positioning.In all, the new iPad will continue to keep Apple at the top of the tablet market while the iPad 2 will make further inroads with the new lower pricing. It effectively sets the bar high and low for all other tablet manufacturers.