Apple took the wraps off a new retina display iPad (with 4G LTE) and a 1080p Apple TV box today (sorry no TV set), both of which will be available on March 16th. While the announcements themselves aren?t particularly groundbreaking ? solid incremental improvements ? Tim Cook revealed a metric that should be a bit of shocker:
?We sold more iPads in the last quarter of last year, than any PC maker sold of their PCs,? he said. ?We?re talking about a world where the PC is no longer at the center of your digital world, but rather just a device. We?re talking about a new world where the devices you use the most need to be more portable? and dramatically more easy to use than ever before.?
In other words, don?t think of an iPad as a ?tablet? per se, but a new category of media device that blends a computer, television, gaming console and HD camera in a single, portable unit. For media companies, this is the new point of the spear, and for the first time, the numbers back it up. Design for glass first, keyboards second. Build for portability first, desktops second.
The new display ? which adds a million pixels ? will provide media developers with a richer canvas. However, existing apps will be scaled up automatically, and text will render in higher-res. ?Everything has been updated, but as you remember when the iPhone 4 went to the retina display, developers didn?t have to do anything and their apps looked better,? said Apple?s Phil Schiller. Still, it will be interesting to see what low-res images (like brands) look like on the new display.
With the new retina display and a faster chip, the immediate and most obvious application is ?console-quality? gaming. After all, over half of all app sessions on iOS and Android are dedicated to gaming, and the most popular category of app purchases ? by a long shot ? are games. So it?s safe to say, the new iPad will accelerate game development even further.
The second most obvious application is video. Apple announced 1080p for the cloud and the new Apple TV, and the new iPad is equipped with 3.1 million pixels (?the most ever for a mobile device?) and a 1080p video camera, to boot. The iPad is made for consuming vast amounts of video, and with an updated iMovie app, can also create video, as well. And as we know, it comes in extremely handy as a second-screen device, but Apple didn?t announce any new synergy between the iPad and Apple TV (currently you can sync the two via Airplay).
Finally, photos take center screen on the new iPad, with the launch of a powerful iPhoto app on the device. I remember when the iPad first came out, people doubted the need for a camera (other than video calling). But I find myself taking plenty of photos ? and you can import up to 19 megapixel photos from your favorite SLR (or just your iPhone). The new iPhoto, probably more than anything else, will help shift the iPad (albeit slightly) from simply a consumption device to more of a creation device.
As far as the Apple TV, it?s now running iOS 5, which means the next logical addition would be adding video apps. Not this time, but perhaps when Apple unveils a TV set later this year?
Any other thoughts to add from today?s announcements?
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