iPad 2 – Apple Stays Ahead of the Competition

Today, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad 2, which is to go on sale on March 11.

While some reviewers have expressed disappointment in the lack of head-turning new features, others rave about the new design.  I for one, fall in the latter camp and believe that Apple has another winner on their hands that will be tough for competitors to beat over the next year.  And after all, isn’t that all that Apple needs?

As Jony Ive (Senior VP, Design) stated in the video on Apple’s website, ” The original iPad defined a category.”  I would take this one step further by stating that “iPad 2 has refined a category”.

An Engineering Marvel

The engineering achievement of the iPad 2 is nothing short of a marvel.  Apple managed to nearly double the throughput with the new A5 dual core processor, drastically increase graphics throughput (up to 9x faster), added both front and rear facing cameras, stereo audio as well as a gyroscope, and did all of this in a beautiful unibody construction case that is 1/3 thinner than the original iPad and slightly lighter in weight, while at the same time maintaining the 10 hour battery life.  And the beauty is that this new iPad 2 is offered at the same price as the original iPad, which will soon be discontinued.

What Does this Mean for the Consumer?

However as Apple may be the first to point out, engineering feats do not sell products.  So what does this mean to consumers?  Well to start, it means a very sleek and easy-to-hold design.  It also means much more processing power to take advantage of for an improved gaming experience as well as for video creation.  With the addition of cameras, the user can now shoot 720p HD video and use the new iMovie app to edit the video directly on the iPad 2.  You can also use the iPad 2 to make video calls.  And now there is the GarageBand app so not only Mac owners, but also  iPad 2 owners can get creative, composing/playing music from their iPad 2.

It’s Not Just About the Device – Apple is Creating an Ecosystem

Apple improves the user experience by creating an ecosystem.  The iPad 2 of course connects to iTunes where you can download apps, music and video.  But now you can stream your multimedia content to your Apple TV-connected HDTV using AirPlay.  Watch your favorite TV show or the HD movie you just shot on a family outing on your HDTV without any wires.

And if you don’t have an Apple TV?  Use an adapter to plug your iPad 2 into an HDTV or projector to mirror what is displaying on your iPad.

And if for some reason you need a hard copy of something on the iPad 2 screen?  You can now print it out over your Wi-Fi network without any drivers or software to install.

The Icing on the Cake

Perhaps the most interesting feature of the iPad 2 is the new Smart Cover.  This cover was designed at the same time as the iPad 2 so that it attaches in a seamless and effortless manner.  The cover, which comes in many colors, can be folded to provide a stand for typing or viewing (different angles for each).  And when the cover is fully attached over the screen, it automatically puts the iPad 2 to sleep.  Start lifting the cover and the iPad 2 turns on instantly – this is a very nice design.

Response to Pundits

The pundits mention their disappointment that the iPad 2 still doesn’t have a SD memory card expansion slot, USB port or support for Adobe Flash video.  Some are also disappointed that the iPad 2 display isn’t greater resolution or doesn’t use Apple’s Retina display that is found on the iPhone 4.

To these pundits, I have two responses:

1) Apple provides an ecosystem that works.  Do you really need the SD card slot or USB port when you have wireless access and connectivity to iTunes?  And ability to play Flash video may be nice, but right or wrong, Apple has already stated their position on this and will not likely change.  Apple is providing an ecosystem that is well thought out and works.  The competition has a few items that they can try to exploit such as inability to play Flash video, memory card expansion slots and USB.  But in the end, are these items enough to get you to buy another vendor’s tablet instead of the iPad?  Perhaps not – particularly with Apple’s lead in the number and quality of Apps available for their platform.

2) Regarding the display, it’s not always easy to improve the specs on display technology with each new product introduction – particularly while maintaining the same price point.  Just because the Retina display was feasible on the iPhone 4 does not mean it is necessarily cost effective yet to implement on a 9.7″ iPad.  Sometimes engineering/marketing trade-offs must be made.  Sure I’d love to see the retina display on an iPad – but I likely won’t pay a large adder for it if it cannot be produced cost effectively in a 9.7″ size.

In Summary

So is the iPad 2 a revolutionary device?  Perhaps not.  However, Apple has upped the ante enough to make this a compelling product that will be very successful.  Competitors will have difficulty offering a tablet with similar form factor, weight and functionality at this price point.  This will ensure that Apple will continue to lead the tablet market for the next year, which is, after all, what this device needs to deliver for Apple.

Please feel free to post your comments on this blog.

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Apple Unveils New MacBook Pro Lineup

Apple has unveiled its new lineup of MacBook Pro laptop computers.  These new laptops feature Intel’s new Sandy Bridge CPUs, improved graphics capability, the newest in I/O interfacing technology, a new Face Time HD camera, a multi-touch trackpad, and longer battery life (up to 7 hours of wireless web surfing).

New MacBook Pro

Processor: The 13″ version comes either with an Intel Core i5 dual core processor, or the fastest dual core processor available – the 2.7GHz Core i7 with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.4GHz.  The 15″ and 17″ models are available up to a quad core Core i7 at 2.3GHz, with Turbo Speeds up to 3.4 GHz, and includes up to 8MB of shared L3 Cache memory.  The result is that the new top-of-the-line MacBook Pros will now run close to twice as fast as their top-of-the-line predecessors.

Graphics: The upgraded on-chip GPU of the Sandy Bridge architecture (Intel HD Graphics 3000), is present across the new line of MacBook Pros and is used to quickly and efficiently encode and decode video, which allows the new HD resolution for Face Time video calls, as well as allows longer playback of DVD and other videos.  In addition, the 15″ and 17″ models include a discrete high performance AMD Radeon GPU (up to 3x the performance of predecessors) that handle more intensive tasks such as gaming and HD video editing/processing with greater speed and responsiveness than before.

I/O – Thunderbolt: Perhaps the most interesting feature of the new MacBook Pro lineup is the new I/O interface, which is the first implementation of Intel’s new Thunderbolt technology (for those who remember Intel’s “Light Peak” nomenclature, this is the re-naming of that technology).

Thunderbolt was conceived as a solution that would provide incredibly fast bi-directional data transfers and that just about anything could plug into.  Thunderbolt is based on PCI Express and DisplayPort technologies.  By connecting RAID arrays or video capture solutions through Thunderbolt, you can for the first time get PCI Express performance.  Thunderbolt also provides up to 10W of power to peripherals.  And by using simple adapters, you can connect existing USB, FireWire and Gigabit Ethernet to the Thunderbolt port.

In addition, as Thunderbolt is also based on DisplayPort, you can connect any high resolution display with a mini DisplayPort plug directly into the Thunderbolt port, or you can connect a display with HDMI, DVI, or VGA cables using an existing adapter to the Thunderbolt port.

Thunderbolt is capable up to 10Gbps in both directions, and is >12 times faster than FireWire 800, is 20 times faster than USB 2.0, and is even double the speed of the new USB 3.0 standard.

The Feature Set for Thunderbolt includes:

• Dual-channel 10 Gbps per port
• Bi-directional
• Dual-protocol (PCI Express* and DisplayPort*)
• Compatible with existing DisplayPort devices
• Daisy-chained devices
• Electrical or optical cables
• Low latency with highly accurate time synchronization
• Uses native protocol software drivers
• Power over cable for bus-powered devices

Other Features of MacBook Pro :
* Ability to make 720p HD video calls between new MacBook Pros
* Multi-touch trackpad allows gestures such as pinch to zoom in and out, swipe to scroll, clicking and right-clicking
* 802.11n and Bluetooth wireless

I expect this new lineup of MacBook Pro laptops to be successful among the growing base of Apple fans.

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The Internet of Things

Mobile communications continue to evolve.  We started in the 1990’s by wanting to talk on a phone wherever we happened to be – voice communications.  Over the past 20 years, we’ve worked on shrinking cell phone sizes and increasing talk time/standby time to make the voice-centric devices more user friendly.

In the 2000’s we finally saw Smart Phones take off – it was no longer good enough to talk on the phone – we wanted mobile access to data whether this was email, web access, SMS or social media.  As smart phones progressed with higher data rates/bandwidth and better multimedia capability, we started demanding streaming audio and video to our mobile devices.

The 2010’s have begun with the advent of the Tablet Computer.  Certainly there have been prior attempts at tablets in the past, but none successful until Apple launched their iPad.  Now through tablets, computers are becoming more portable and intuitive with rich multimedia experience.

So what is next?  What will continue to drive connected technological growth?

If you have not heard, the new mantra is “The Internet of Things”.  The Internet of Things essentially allows for the connection of everything to the internet.  Not only will our mobile devices be connected, but our lights, our HVAC systems, our consumer electronics, our cars, our product inventories.  Essentially, this means M2M (Machine to Machine) interface.  And the communications media will involve a variety of wireless connectivity interfaces which could include WLAN, Bluetooth, NFC, RFID, GPS, etc.

We have already seen a few examples of this, with TV’s and Blu-Ray players that are connected to the internet.  It is now possible to stream video from your DVR recordings or live satellite TV to your mobile phone or tablet.  This is only the beginning.

Imagine:

* Being able to control your lights, heater or appliances from your mobile phone.

* Energy could be used much more efficiently as buildings connect to the internet and can self regulate things like temperature and lighting based on external factors.

* Companies can reduce or eliminate the chance of running out of stock as their inventory can all communicate to the internet for inventory tracking.

* Health care will improve by sensors that monitor bodily functions and communicate the information to central health records and can alert doctors if there are any abnormalities.  Pill bottles can tell us when it’s time to take our medication.

This is the vision of the future of mobile/internet technology – everything connected to the internet.  Of course there are many issues to overcome including cost effectiveness, power consumption, not to mention non-technical issues such as privacy concerns.  But many believe that this is our future.

At this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs stated that by 2014, 70% of all consumer electronics devices will be connected to the internet.  This will help fuel growth in infrastructure, semiconductors, and software.

These are indeed exciting times – we have only begun to scratch the surface of wireless connectivity.

Feel free to post your comments or thoughts.

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Samsung Announces Galaxy Tab 10.1 At Mobile World Congress

Today, Samsung announced its Galaxy Tab 10.1 which, like Motorola’s Xoom, is based on Google’s Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) OS running on NVidia’s Tegra 2 dual core ARM applications processor with integrated GeForce GPU.  Kudos go to NVidia for working with Google to have its processor chosen for the reference design for Honeycomb.  This gave NVidia a leadership position in the initial Honeycomb platform launches.

Now on to Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1.  Features include a 10.1″ touch screen display with 1280×800 pixel resolution, support for 1080p HD video recording at 24 frames per second/playback at 30fps, an 8M pixel camera on the back, a 2M pixel camera on the front for video conferencing, quad-band GSM (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) with support for HSPA+ 21.1Mbps, WiFi (802.11a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, USB2.0, gyroscope, accelerometer, digital compass, proximity sensor, and storage capacities of either 16GB or 32GB.  Vodaphone will be the carrier for this device for Europe and Asia in the spring, though no announcement was made for the US market.

Samsung, Motorola and Google clearly have their sites on the Apple iPad.  However with the momentum that the iPad has to date coupled with the soon-to-be launched iPad2, I expect that 2011 will still be one dominated by the iPad.  However with these new Android 3.0-based tablets being introduced from these major competitors, I anticipate strong positioning for a battle for market share in 2012 and beyond.

Feel free to post your comments or thoughts.

Learn more about this blogger at: http://paulkaplan.net

Gartner Announces 2010 Mobile Handset Numbers

Overall global handset sales totaled 1.6B units in 2010, an increase of 31.8% from 2009.  Smartphone sales were up 72.1% and accounted for 19% of total handset sales.

The leading manufacturers of mobile phones in 2010 were Nokia, Samsung, LG, RIM (Blackberry), and Apple – in that order.  For the first time, Apple, which grew handset sales 87.2% from 2009 to 46.6M units, surpassed both Sony-Ericsson and Motorola.

Nokia sold 461M units in 2010 (28.9% share), which was a 7.5% drop in market share from 2009.  Samsung took 17.6% of the market (1.9% drop in share), LG had 7.1% of the market (a drop of 12 points of share from 2009).  RIM actually increased their shipments by 38.2% in 2010 to 47.5M units, though share of the market increased only from 2.8% to 3.0%.  RIM’s strongest growth reportedly came from Southeast Asia and Europe.

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New iPad2 Enters Production

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Apple’s new iPad2 has entered production.  The specs are still a bit sketchy, but the device is supposed to be thinner and lighter, come with a faster processor, more memory, and a more powerful graphics processor.  It is also rumored to include a front-facing camera for video-conferencing, though supposedly the display resolution will be similar to the first iPad.  There are also rumors that this new iPad will be capable of GSM or CDMA, such that the same basic hardware unit can be sold through AT&T or Verizon.  Expectations are that the new iPad2 will start shipping this spring.

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Smartphones with Intel Inside?

Though Intel has dominated the PC market with its processor architecture since the beginning of the IBM PC days, they have largely been absent from the mobile market, which is dominated by the ARM architecture.  Intel is now preparing to challenge ARM’s dominance in the mobile handset space.

Intel recently demonstrated at an Intel sales conference a smartphone featuring an SoC based on their Atom architecture – which is codenamed Medfield.  The Medfield SoC is due to be released later this year.  It was unclear who designed this phone or which Operating System it uses.

In late 2010, Intel’s CEO, Paul Otellini, stated that Intel had already produced its second generation smartphone chip (Medfield), and that it is currently in customer sampling.  The plan is for Medfield to be shipped in phones later in 2011 and into 2012.

Intel has in the past struggled at penetrating the cell phone market, one key reason of which has been power efficiency.  However Intel claims that Medfield will be able to challenge ARM-based SoC power efficiency.

In a separate but related event, Intel just closed the deal on their purchase of Infineon’s wireless business unit, a deal worth $1.4B.

Intel is indeed serious about trying to penetrate the wireless market as they must since the future lies in mobility with internet connectivity anywhere and everywhere.

The question is, can Intel make inroads into the heavily-dominated ARM-based market, where handset companies have already made massive software investments in the ARM architecture?  Intel certainly has the financial wherewithal to mount a challenge, but will that be enough?

Feel free to post your opinion as a comment…

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Near Field Communication – How Widespread Will It Become?

Anyone who has traveled to Japan (or South Korea)  lately may have noticed that the Japanese use their phones to pay many types of bills.  With Near Field Communications chips embedded in Japanese cell phones, one can swipe their cell phone near a POS terminal and either have their cell phone bill charged for the price of the item or perhaps have it deducted directly from a bank account.

Mobile payments such as this are appearing in various locations: One can now use their Japanese mobile phones as ATM cards at Japanese ATM machines  to withdraw cash from their bank accounts; Japanese Taxis will soon accept mobile phone payments; at some gasoline stations in Japan, one can now buy gas via a swipe of a mobile phone; and Japanese can pay a restaurant tab using a mobile phone at some restaurants.  These are just a few of the examples of use.

This capability is enabled by NFC (“Near Field Communications”).  NFC operates at 13.56MHz and has data throughput up to 424kbit/sec over distances no longer than 4cm.  NFC is capable of both read and write and works between NFC chips embedded in some cell phones and contactless POS (“Point Of Sale”) terminals.

NFC in Japan is so popular that even Soft Bank in Japan, the exclusive Japanese carrier for the Apple iPhone, has started offering NFC stickers to attach to the back of the iPhone 4 to enable NFC capability on the iPhone, which has yet to include NFC capability internal to the handset.

Will NFC Adoption Occur in the U.S.?

The issue with the US or any other country adopting Mobile Payments is that it involves a fairly complex ecosystem.  Putting NFC chips into handsets is the “easy” part.  But in addition to this, mobile payments needs to be supported by mobile operators, the banking industry, retailers and consumers.  In the past, there has not been much motivation in the US to make this happen.

Times, however, may be changing.

Mobile Operators: US operators AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile USA have formed a joint venture called ISIS that is working with Barclay’s Barclaycard US entity to grow the adoption of NFC in the US.  These are supposed to go commercially live in mid-2012.

Handset Vendors: NFC handsets are currently not available in most markets, but Nokia and Samsung have been among the first to announce NFC-capable handsets, and other handset vendors will likely follow.

Banking:  Mobile carriers need to sign credit issuers to support their mobile payment services.  These relationships are being built with Barclays and they are working with mobile operators to enable mobile payments.

Retailers: Retailers will likely need to make a significant investment in installing the NFC POS equipment in their stores.  Will they be willing to make such an investment when credit and debit cards are already widely used?  This will largely depend on the benefit to them.  If there is consumer pull for use of Mobile payments, retailers will make the investment.  Without the consumer pull, it is unlikely.

Consumers: The key to the future of NFC in the US is whether there is any perceived benefit of NFC/Mobile Payments by consumers versus the current system of credit/debit cards.  In order for banks and operators to make this system work, the industry should focus on new capabilities of NFC that credit/debit cards cannot address, while stressing ease of use.  With such new capabilities, features and incremental ease of use, consumers will  start to desire Mobile Payments, creating the pull needed for NFC and mobile payments to take off globally.

What is your opinion?  Feel free to post a comment.

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Sony Announces “Next Generation Portable” NGP

It’s official – Sony announced the next generation of its Play Station Portable, codenamed NGP.

Sony's NGP

The NGP will focus on several key concepts: Revolutionary User Interface, Social Connectivity, Location-Based Entertainment, Converging Real and Virtual Reality.

Specs: Quad-Core ARM Cortex A9 processor, 5″ multi-touch OLED display with 960 x 544 resolution, dual analog sticks, 3G, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, rear-mounted multi-touch touchpad, accelerometer/gyroscope/electronic compass, built-in stereo speakers, microphone, and both front and rear-facing cameras.

Games will reside on new Flash media.

It is unclear when the NGP will be launched, but it will occur this year.  Likely Sony announced this early in the year to let would-be Nintendo 3DS purchasers that a new Sony handheld will be coming out later in the year.  Nintendo’s new 3DS is scheduled for release in the U.S. in the March timeframe.

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Sony’s PSP2 Rumored to Support 3G Wireless and Have OLED Display

Nikkei claims that Sony’s PSP will include 3G Wireless support as well as an active OLED display.  The 3G service will allow users to play on-line games as well as download movies and games, but will not include traditional voice phone calls (though it is unclear whether VoIP services like Skype will be supported).

Nikkei mentions that in Japan, the service provider will be NTT DoCoMo but there is no mention of support from international carriers.

Depending on Sony’s implementation of the OLED display, this could lead to gorgeous display capability with wide viewing angles and reduced power consumption.  The devil will be in the implementation details, and therefore it is too early to say whether Sony’s OLED display will be stunning or just an evolutionary improvement.

Stay tuned – Sony is scheduled to unveil the PSP2 on January 27!

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