I was browsing apple.ca/store today and came across this in the iPad section (click to enlarge):
You’ll note that the ship date is now June 7th and not May 28th as I’ve previously reported. So my prediction of Apple having short supplies of the iPad seem to be accurate. There’s no official word from Apple on this, but I suspect they’ll have to say something when the fanbois notice.
If you live in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK, I have good news for you. You’ll be able to maybe get the iPad on May 28th. But there’s more to it than that:
Customers can pre-order all iPad models from Apple’s online store in all nine countries beginning on Monday, May 10. In the US, Apple has already sold over one million iPads and customers have downloaded over 12 million apps from the App Store, as well as over 1.5 million ebooks from the new iBookstore.
That sounds good, but keep in mind that Apple has had problems keeping them in stock. I don’t expect this to be any different when these nine countries get the iPad. Another thing to consider is that both versions of the iPad will be available, so I hope that the telcos in these countries have everything ready to go so that they don’t end up like AT&T.
We’ll see how this turns out on the 28th, but my advice would be to pre-order on the 10th.
People up here in the Great White North who have lusted after an iPad have been waiting impatiently for a official availability date from Apple Canada. Today, that date was announced…. Sort of. Apple posted a new iPad page on their Canadian site to announce that Canadians can pre-order an iPad on May 10th and they’d get it in “late May.” Why is that? Here’s why:
Faced with this surprisingly strong US demand, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the international launch of iPad by one month, until the end of May. We will announce international pricing and begin taking online pre-orders on Monday, May 10. We know that many international customers waiting to buy an iPad will be disappointed by this news, but we hope they will be pleased to learn the reason-the iPad is a runaway success in the US thus far.
I’m guessing that some fanbois are not going to be happy about that. But at least it’s coming.
And to add to the fun, my “best friends at Rogers” sent me a note to say that the iPad will be on the Rogers network in May as well. A post on Rogers Red Board has some details that will likely get fleshed out closer to the launch date. No word from Bell or Telus if they will be offering plans for the iPad as well. My guess is no, but I suspect that we’ll see shortly if I’m right.
Apple via God Steve Jobs had one of their religious experiences famous media events today to announce iPhone OS 4.0 for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. You can watch the media event here, but I’ll hit the highlights:
There’s a bunch of other features that I haven’t mentioned here, so you may want to watch the video to get an idea of how expansive this OS is. Oh, I should mention that if you have a first generation iPod Touch and iPhone, none of this will work for you. It’s time for thou to upgrade.
If you’re a developer, you can download the software developer kit beta now. End users can get their hands on this in the fall (how’s that for vague) if you’re an iPad user, this summer if you’re an iPhone or iPod Touch user.
I spotted this on the Oscars broadcast tonight:
If you want a higher quality version, click here. Please leave a comment with your thoughts on this. Oh, if you happen to know what the song is that plays during the commercial, please let us know.
Oh, “The Steve” is apparently at the Oscars according to Wayne Sutton and John Chu. I’m guess that it has something to do with the fact that he’s Disney’s largest individual shareholder.
Maybe Apple should have picked another name for the iPad?
Let’s start with computer maker Fujitsu who is prepping a lawsuit over Apple’s use of the iPad name:
“It’s our understanding that the name is ours,” Masahiro Yamane, director of Fujitsu’s public relations division, said Thursday. He said Fujitsu was aware of Apple’s plans to sell the iPad tablet and that the company was consulting lawyers over next steps.
Charming. If this sounds vaguely familiar, it should. Cisco sued Apple for using the name iPhone, but later settled out of court which cleared the way for Apple to use it. Perhaps the same thing will happen here? We shall see.
Also, it’s clear that nobody at Apple watches Mad TV as the name iPad was used in a spoof:
Not only that, for a significant portion of yesterday, the word iTampon was one of the top trending topics according to CNN:
“With “iTampon” quickly emerging as a trending Twitter topic, it’s probably safe to say that many women found themselves cringing as they asked, ‘Do any women work at Apple?’ ” wrote Annie Colbert on the blog “Holy Kaw!”
That iSlate name looks better and better as time goes on.
The iHype is over. (Or not judging from the Globe And Mail, Toronto Star, and CNN) Introducing the iPad (anybody betting on iSlate as being the name that Apple chose just lost some cash). Here’s what has been announced from a hardware perspective:
Here’s some news for iPhone/iPod Touch developers, the iPad can run iPhone apps either pixel-for-pixel in a window, or pixel-doubled fullscreen. That means that when this thing hits The Temple Of Steve Jobs Apple Stores, you’ll be able to download apps to it right away. Of course a new software development kit that is being released today will help developers tweak their apps to fully exploit the iPad.
The built-in apps look like Mac apps rather than iPhone apps. You get iPhoto and iTunes that look like touch-oriented versions of their Mac counterparts. Safari is included too, but still no Flash support. WTF Apple? But the big news is that there is a new app called “iBooks” which is an e-book reader. Not only is it an e-book reader, it has it’s own store called the “iBook Store.” Deals have apparently been signed with Harper Collins, Penguin, Macmillan, Simon & Shuster, Hatchett for their book content. More are apparently on the way. Books apparently use the ePub format which is an open standard that might mean that any e-books that you have might be viewable on the iPad. I should also mention that the New York Times has already come out with a iPad specific application. I expect other print media types (newspapers and magazines) to come out with apps that exploit their content.
For those who want to get a bit of work done, there’s a new version of iWork that fully exploits the capabilities of the iPad. Plus they’ve designed a user interface that makes it easy to use. For example, if you’re using Numbers (the iWork spreadsheet app), there’s a keyboard that is Numbers specific. I have to admit that it looks pretty good and it was a nice touch for Apple to add this to the mix.
As for the 3G wireless, Apple has struck a deal with AT&T to have a 250MB data plan at $14.99 a month and a unlimited plan for $29.95 a month. Both plans are no contract with the ability to cancel at any time. Apple hopes to have international partners signed up by June or July, so don’t hold your breath for an iPad with 3G if you’re not in the US. Oh, by the way, this uses the Micro SIM standard. What? You’ve never hard of the Micro SIM standard? Neither have I.
So how much is this going to cost you? The WiFi only versions are (in USD) $499 for 16 GB, $599 for 32 GB, $699 for 64 GB. If you want the 3G + WiFi version, it will cost you $629 for 16 GB, $729 for 32GB, $829 for 64GB. Accessories include a a dock as well as a dock with a keyboard. A case is also available. The iPad is shipping in 60 days for the WiFi only versions and 90 days for the 3G + WiFi versions.
So, does the iPad live up to the iHype that went on for iEver? Please leave an iComment below with your iThoughts.
UPDATE: The QuickTime stream of this event is online.
iPad Launches In The Rest Of Word…. Creates All Sorts Of iHype….. And Some iDisappointment [UPDATED x2]
Posted in Commentary with tags Apple, iPad on May 29, 2010 by itnerdSo, the rest of the world gets to buy the iPad from Apple as of yesterday. True to form for Apple launches, people lined up and all sorts of interesting things happened in cities like my hometown London, Paris, Sidney, and my adopted hometown of Toronto. Speaking of Canada, I got an e-mail from my “best friends at Rogers” who had this to say about the launch:
This morning we posted to RedBoard some information regarding today’s activations of the iPad.
We also provided some detail around how we’ve worked hard to become one of the only carriers in the world certified by Apple to offer an innovative, on-device purchase flow.
Noted. They should also note that Bell Canada has pricing on their website for 3G data for the iPad which by some really strange co-incidence is the same pricing as Rogers. The only thing that Bell Canada has going for it is that unlike Rogers they still don’t have that black cloud from an “oops” moment hanging over them which was mentioned by at least one news agency. But I digress. Canada’s third teclo Telus doesn’t have any pricing for the iPad, but I’m guessing that pricing is coming as I’m sure they don’t want to be left out of the iHype. But I’m not holding my breath for anything groundbreaking from them. I guess that pricing that other countries get such as the USA who gets unlimited data plans for the iPad for less than Canadians pay for 5GB of data isn’t coming to Canada anytime soon.
Too bad.
So, do you have an iPad? What do you think of it? Post a comment and share your experience.
UPDATE: I’m shocked. Telus launched an iPad 3G Data plan over the weekend and it isn’t in lockstep with Bell and Rogers. It’s $20 for 500MB of data. Anything over 500MB a month will be billed at the rate of 5¢/MB, up to a maximum of $30 of overage per month. The maximum allowed data usage per month will be 5GB. I did some quick math and if you use anywhere from 500MB to 800 MB of data, Telus is the best deal out there. Props to them for actually daring to be different.
UPDATE #2: Apple announced today that it sold 2 million iPads in less than 60 days. Can you say “Cha Ching?”
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