Those who bet iPhone’s sales would saturate or stagnant after a phenomenal kick-off and iPad would die a natural death will have to wait a little longer. Remember when Apple haters having fun making jokes about iPad when it was newly launched? Well, it seems these people have to eat their humble pies. One of the early signs that Apple Inc.’s (Nasdaq: AAPL, stock) rivals were sweating cold was the fact that almost all of them promised their version of tablet – RIM BlackBerry, HP, Samsung, Motorola, Dell, Asus, Lenovo and Acer.

iPhone 4 is still selling like hot cakes and accessories shops are laughing their ways to the banks. Regardless whether Apple did a good job in controlling the way they sell iPhone 4 based on daily quota hence creating a perception that the phone always “Sold Out” before end of the day or their assembly lines are really having tough time meeting demands, almost everyone hopes to get iPhone 4 for themselves, especially during current holiday season.

While iPods and Macs were the two main products driving Apple’s sales not many moons ago, iPhone and iPad are now the replacement products although the cannibalization has not enter its serious stage, not that it would in the first place. And with the release of the latest iOS 4.2, owners of iPads are enjoying the same operating system as iPhone 4. Many are expecting iPad 2.0 in the next couple of months to narrow the gaps between the current iPhone and iPad. What would be on the offerings on the table for iPad 2.0?

1)            Retina Display – Owners of iPhone 4 and iPod touch are still amaze with the pixel density that human eye is unable to distinguish. It is expected that the next iPad would have this retina display feature thus reading e-books and playing games would be a total different experience

2)            FaceTime – Adding another front-facing camera to support FaceTime and enable more people to enjoy video call should not be a hassle, not to mention the selling point in encouraging more buyers during the holiday sales.

3)            Thinner iPad – BlackBerry Playbook (10mm), Samsung Galaxy Tab (12mm) and Dell Streak (10mm) all are thinner than iPad (13.4mm). It would be nice to compact and make iPad 2.0 as thin as iPhone 4 (9.3mm) although anything thinner would be nicer.

4)            Faster iPad – One of the reasons Apple could not and would not introduce iPhone with 64GB capacity is not to cannibalize iPad with the same memory. While a 16GB iPhone 4 is sufficient for lightweight users, it’s a matter of time before consumers’ appetite for higher storage reach a tipping point that even the current 32GB will sound like dinosaur-age. So it’s natural to push the next iPad to not only have higher memory but also faster processor in driving whatever new features planned.

5)            iPad Mini – Remember iPod classic and thereafter iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle? Well, while Apple has done a great job in justifying iPad’s 10-inch screen to differentiate it from smartphones and laptops, there’re reasons why competitors are introducing smaller 7-inch tablets. Instead of letting RIM and Samsung making easy sales pitch over their 7-inch screen tablets, why not Apple enter the 7-inch screen battlefield as well?

6)            Multi-colors – iPhone 4 may not see a white colour version anytime soon (somehow I like the current black very much) but iPad is a different animal. Consumers like to show-off their iPad because it’s like, well, the LV of smartphones so by having varieties colours of iPads, the same way as iPods, is not a bad idea after all. But can Apple apply the same colours from iPods to iPads knowing that the consumers would handle both gadgets differently?

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• Apple Earnings – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
• 5 Reasons Why Apple Stock Crash After Opening
• iPhone 4 – Maxis or DiGi? Get it from Apple Singapore
• RIM Beat Forecasts, BlackBerry is Not Dead Yet
• Gartner’s Prediction on Mobile OS Top Market Shares
• Apple Special Event – 20 Things That May Interest You

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November 29th, 2010 by financetwitter

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