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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“Everyone’s been wondering who will come out with a product that’s more amazing that the iPad 2,” Cook said.<\/p>\n
“Stop wondering: we are.”<\/p>\n
The global tablet user base reached 67 million in 2011, according to researcher Strategy Analytics.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“And this made up 76 percent of our revenues. This is incredible.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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