This weekend the new 2012 iPad will be launched in 30 more countries, continuing the rapid international rollout of the latest iPad.
Here’s the full list of nations where the new iPad will be released over the next couple of days:
- Friday: Argentina, Aruba, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, Costa Rica, Curacao, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Kenya, Madagascar, Malta, Martinique, Mauritius, Morocco, Peru, Taiwan, Tunisia and Vietnam
- Saturday: Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Welcome to all of you new 2012 iPad users – if you’ve just picked up a new iPad in any of those countries let us know in the comments how the buying experience went.
iOS 5.1.1 – the latest update for the iPad and iPhone operating system – has been released today, and is available now to download and install. The update contains a handful of bug fixes and performance improvements. Here’s the change list posted for it:
- Improves reliability of using HDR option for photos taken using the Lock Screen shortcut
- Addresses bugs that could prevent the new iPad from switching between 2G and 3G networks
- Fixes bugs that affected AirPlay video playback in some circumstances
- Improved reliability for syncing Safari bookmarks and Reading List
- Fixes an issue where ‘Unable to purchase’ alert could be displayed after successful purchase
The update for the iPad is 58.6MB in size and can be downloaded and installed when your iPad is connected to a PC via iTunes or directly on the iPad by going to Settings > General > Software Update.
It took right around 15 minutes for me, doing it directly on the iPad – from the time the download started to the install being complete and the iPad back at a home screen.
It looks like Apple retail stores are replacing iMacs with iPads at their ‘Kids Table’ areas, as Rene Ritchie at iMore recently reported.
The tables, which had previously been decked out with a quartet of iMacs, now sport 4 iPads instead.
Like the previous iMacs, which were set up with educational and game programs, the iPads had a variety of child-friendly apps.
I think this is a great move by Apple – in my experience, kids take to iPads and get pretty heavily engaged with them much more quickly than they do with computers. Between the ease-of-use of iOS and the big touch-screen to work with, it’s far easier for kids to get around and find what they like to do on an iPad.
iPads are already used by Apple store Genius and concierge staff – I’m not sure any Apple product has as big a presence in their stores now.
Apple reported its financial results for its 2012 second quarter yesterday afternoon. Once again their results were stellar overall – and helped by some big iPad numbers. They sold 11.8 million iPads during the quarter – a 151% increase over the same quarter last year.
The New York Times Technology section has a piece up today where Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has a quote that offers perspective on the iPad’s sales and stunning success:
“Just two years after we shipped the initial iPad, we sold 67 million,” he said. “It took us 24 years to sell that many Macs, and five years for that many iPods, and over three years for that many iPhones.”
Wow. Considering that both the iPod and the iPhone have both been massive consumer hits, that is one hell of an impressive bit of perspective. Here’s a little of what the NYT has to say on this:
That illustrates just how fast the tablet market is growing. Mr. Cook had previously said that he believed the tablet market would eventually be bigger than the PC market. Apple has had the luxury of having no serious competition in the tablet category. (It faces competition from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Sony in the subsegment of people who want to use the device primarily to read e-books.)
And here’s quite an interesting quote from Tim Cook in the Apple press release on the Q2 results:
“The new iPad is off to a great start, and across the year you’re going to see a lot more of the kind of innovation that only Apple can deliver.”
The innovation part could be referring to just about anything from Apple, but I think it’s notable that it is mentioned in the same sentence as the new iPad, in particular. Maybe, just maybe, a hint at an expansion of the iPad line?
