What is The iPad?

The iPad  is a line of tablet computers designed and marketed byApple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, apps and web content. Its size and weight fall between those of contemporary smartphones and laptop computers. The iPad runs iOS, the same operating system used on Apple's iPod Touch and iPhone, and can run its own applications as well as iPhone applications. Without modification or a developer certificate, the iPad will only run programs approved by Apple and distributed via the Apple App Store (with the exception of programs that run inside the iPad's web browser).

Like iPhone and iPod Touch, the iPad is controlled by a multitouch display—a departure from most previous tablet computers, which generally used a pressure-triggered stylus—as well as a virtual onscreen keyboard in lieu of a physical keyboard. The iPad is sold withWi-Fi and cellular models. The Wi-Fi connection is used to access local area networksand the Internet. Cellular models connect to mobile data networks with 3G or 4G in addition to Wi-Fi. Since the release of iOS 5, the device does not need to be managed and synced by iTunes running on a personal computer via USB cable.

The iPad was announced on January 27, 2010, by Jobs at an Apple press conference at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

Jobs later said that Apple began developing the iPad before the iPhone, but temporarily shelved the effort upon realizing that its ideas would work just as well in a mobile phone. The iPad's internal codename was K48, which was revealed in the court case surrounding leaking of iPad information before launch.

iPad (first generation)

Apple began taking pre-orders for the iPad from U.S. customers on March 12, 2010. The only major change to the device between its announcement and being available to pre-order was the change of the behavior of the side switch from sound muting to that of a screen rotation lock. The Wi-Fi version of the iPad went on sale in the United States on April 3, 2010. The Wi-Fi + 3G version was released on April 30. 3G service in the United States is provided by AT&T and was initially sold with two prepaid contract-free data plan options: one for unlimited data and the other for 250 MB per month at half the price.On June 2, 2010, AT&T announced that effective June 7 the unlimited plan would be replaced for new customers with a 2 GB plan at slightly lower cost; existing customers would have the option to keep the unlimited plan. The plans are activated on the iPad itself and can be canceled at any time.

The iPad was initially only available online at The Apple Store as well as the company's retail locations. The iPad has since been available for purchase through many retailers including Amazon, Wal-Mart and network operators. The iPad was launched in countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom on May 28. Online pre-orders in those countries began on May 10.Apple released the iPad in Hong Kong, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand and Singapore. 

300,000 iPads were sold on their first day of availability. By May 3, 2010, Apple had sold a million iPads, this was in half the time it took Apple to sell the same number of original iPhones. After passing the one million mark they continued selling rapidly reaching 3 million sales after 80 days. During the October 18, 2010, Financial Conference Call, Steve Jobs announced that Apple had sold more iPads than Macs for the fiscal quarter. In total, Apple sold more than 15 million first-generation iPads prior to the launch of the iPad 2. — selling more than all other tablet PCs combined since the iPad's release. and reaching 75% of tablet PC sales at the end of 2010.

iPad2 (second generation)
Jobs unveiled the iPad 2 at a March 2, 2011, press conference. About 33% thinner than its predecessor and 15% lighter, the iPad 2 has a better processor, a dual coreApple A5 that Apple says is twice as fast as its predecessor for CPU operations and up to nine times as fast for GPU operations. The iPad 2 includes front and back cameras that support the FaceTime video calling application, as well as a three-axis gyroscope. It retains the original's 10-hour battery life and has a similar pricing scheme.

iPad3 (3rd generation)

The successor to the iPad 2 was unveiled on March 7, 2012 by Apple CEO Tim Cook at theYerba Buena Center for the Arts. The new iPad sports the new dual core A5X processor with quad-core graphics, and a Retina Display with a resolution of 2,048 by 1,536 pixels this is over 50 percent more pixels than a standard 1,920 by 1,080 high definition TV screen. As with previous iPads, there are two models, in this case a Wi-Fi only model and a Wi-Fi + Cellular model.

iPad4 (4th generation) 
It was announced on October 23, 2012 as the fourth generation of the iPad line, succeeding the third-generation iPad, and is expected to start shipping on November 2, 2012. The fourth-generation iPad includes aRetina display, the new Apple A6X chip, and the Lightning connector introduced with theiPhone 5. It will ship with iOS 6.0.

Data sources: Wikipedia

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