Everything is ready for the big event. After letting its rivals "let off steam" at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week, Apple is taking back the world hi-tech scene and doing it in style: as announced, Wednesday 7 March at 10 local time (19 in Italy ), at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, the new iPad3 is presented, or iPad HD if you prefer.
According to the latest rumors, in fact, it seems that the new jewel of the bitten apple will not follow the classic numerical denomination, but for marketing reasons it will focus everything on its main distinctive character, the Retina Display which will make the highly anticipated tablet the first with a higher resolution than a normal Full HD.
But this will not be the only novelty that will be staged in Californian Apple Media Event: the ceo Tim Cook will also make it public Apple tv 3, which will most likely be integrated with the same brand new processor indicated for the iPad 3, the A5X, capable, according to many rumors, of bringing video playback in Full HD to 1080p.
Discounted instead the presentation of iOS 5.1, already under construction in the Cupertino laboratories for some time. The new operating system is eagerly awaited by users because it could offer the correction of the numerous bugs found so far in the current firmware. However, the preview of iOS 6 is unlikely, whose formalization will take place directly with the new iPhone 5.
But for the new smartphone there is still to wait: on March 7 the absolute protagonist will be the third tablet, for which rumors are already circulating about some technical characteristics. Make sure for example the presence of a more powerful 8mpx camera, while the screen should be 9,7 inches; the display then will not be an AMOLED but will continue to exploit the IPS technology (in-plane switching). As for the design, it should be entirely unchanged, save for a slightly greater thickness and a slightly more accentuated rear curvature, also used to increase battery capacity. The yellow on the "Home" key has also been resolved: its presence is also confirmed on the iPad HD.
The new iPad will come in three distinct versions: one Wi-Fi only (the cheapest) and the other two equipped with support (in multimode mode) for GSM, Cdma/Umts and Lte mobile networks. As for the prices, they could follow those of the iPad 2 or have a difference of about 80 euros compared to its predecessor. If so, the 16 GB Wi-Fi-only iPad HD will be on the shelf at a price of around 550 euros. The most expensive model should instead be the 64 GB one (Wi-Fi + 3G) at a cost of 870 euros.
At this point, the real question is: will the company founded by Steve Jobs be able to break through the market again this time? Second Bloomberg, Yes. The business newspaper reports a study by Forrester Research Inc., according to which the success of the new jewel is already taken for granted: “Apple is unrivaled on tablets, it controls 73% of the market and there is no Android model capable of reaching 5%”. First there was Hewlett-Packard with 6%, but overwhelmed by the crisis, it first lowered prices and then stopped production.
Now on paper the most "dangerous" competitors are Samsung, Motorola and Acer with 5, 4 and 3% respectively, while Sony and Toshiba are also growing well. But according to Bloomberg the real challenger could become Amazon's Kindle Fire, which is the most competitive on the low cost market due to its much lower prices. “In a survey conducted in September – explains Forrester – 24% of consumers said they wanted to buy an Amazon tablet, against 21% for Samsung and 61% for Apple. In any case, this market is growing very rapidly: by 2016 one-third of the US adult population will own a tablet".
Among other things, the release of the iPad HD comes at an already rosy moment for Cupertino: on 13 February last, the stock on the Stock Exchange exceeded the threshold of 500 dollars per share for the first time, for a total financial value of the company of 500 billion dollars, making it today the most expensive company in the world. And with still impressive growth margins, worthy of a start-up: in the last 10 years its value on the Stock Exchange has already multiplied by 55 times.
To give an example, if someone invested 2002 dollars in the stock of the bitten apple in 10, by beating cash today they could afford an apartment in Manhattan with a view of Central Park! And the trend shows no signs of stopping: in the last quarter of 2011 profit grew by 64,8%, while according to JpMorgan Apple will have grown from 2007 (the year of the first iPhone) to 2013 by 37%, five times faster than other technology giants such as Google, Cisco and Microsoft.
In short, the growth of a start-up but at the same time the solidity of a luxury group: again in the last quarter of 2011, the net operating margin reached a record percentage of 28,2%, easily comparable to that of a group like LVMH. According to analysts at Société Générale, Apple will present a profit of 43 billion dollars in its next financial statements, one of the highest ever made by a private company.
The iPad HD was therefore born under a lucky star: while orphaned by Steve Jobs, the bitten apple continues to eat its opponents.
