River Run Tech Blog: Apple iPad 2 Will Be Released In April
Posted by Eric Torres on Wed, Dec 08, 2010 @ 10:35 AM
Apple will begin production of the iPad 2 in late February and will officially launch the device in early April 2011, according to 
sources from Taiwan-based component makers quoted by DigiTimes. Foxconn, a factory complex in China responsible for building Apple products among other things, were told they will need to ship 400,000 to 600,000 units within the next 100 days. Apple had originally planned to start mass production in January, but due to delays caused by the device's firmware, the schedule was postponed.
The iPad 2 has been widely expected to come out in the first quarter of 2011 and feature a front-facing camera. Some analysts also expected Qualcomm will provide chips that allow the iPad to run on both CDMA and GSM networks, a so-called "world" iPad. The current 3G version is GSM only.
An April Launch could mean the newest iPad would be out prior to Google's upcoming personal computer, which is due for mid-2011, according to the plans Google outlined Tuesday.
Apple is currently dominating the tablet computer market. In the third quarter, the iPad accounted for 95.5 percent of the market with 4.19 million units sold. The remaining share was lead by Android with 2.3 percent, while Windows and other operating systems had even smaller slices. The company is expected to steadily lose share next year, but it's likely going to put up a fight with the iPad 2.