X2 to release “iTablet” in April

• Jac on 2010-02-08
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X2, a UK based Company, has just revealed details of their version of the tablet computer, which will ship in April around the same time as Apple’s iPad, and which they have confusingly called the iTablet.

Remember we thought that Apple’s tablet was going to be called the iTablet, then we heard rumours about an iSlate and then when it was finally unveiled we learned it was to be the iPad.

I really don’t know if X2 are going to have some hassle surrounding their choice of name but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they did. Somehow can’t see Apple being too happy about it.

In the meantime how does the iTablet compare to the iPad?

“Prepare for the next revolution in mobile computing” says Robin Daunter, Technical Director of X2 Computing.

“The iTablet is extremely powerful with a vast array of features and data storage capacity and, what is more, it uses the well received Microsoft Windows 7 operating system making it a more compelling proposition for users wishing to share data with their existing Windows-based systems and networks.

“iTablets can be used in a wider range of business and home environments and will deliver a lower cost of ownership over the operational life of the equipment.”

What we know so far is that the iTablet supports both Windows and Linux operating systems, has an Intel Atom processor, and comes with either a 10.2 inch or a 12.1 inch screen with a resolution of 1024 x 768 and optional multi touch.

You also get a 250GB hard drive, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (3G and GSM optional) and included is an integrated 1.3 megapixel camera, 3 USB ports (optional HDMI output) and it supports Flash.

With the iPad there is no camera, it doesn’t support Flash and there are no USB ports so it’s looking pretty good for X2 so far. What about content?

“iTablet will empower users with unlimited technology and advanced multimedia access across multiple platforms without being restricted to exclusive content providers,” said Jonathan Wharrad, R&D Director of X2 Computing. Was that a dig at Apple?

The iTablet can also multitask so you can open several applications at the same time whereas with the iPad you can’t. Yep, seems like Apple are going to have some competition here.

One downside to the iTablet though is it’s a bit on the chunky side compared to the sleek and slender iPad and that’s a big deal for some.

The iTablet will be available in a wide range of colours but we don’t have any pricing details as yet.

How to Stop a Book Pirate

By E.B. Boyd on Feb 09, 2010 09:36 PM

Last month, Redwood City-based content monitoring company Attributor released a report saying that online book piracy costs publishers $2.75-3 billion a year, or 10 percent of total U.S. books sales. On average, it said, nearly 10,000 copies of every book published (their emphasis) is downloaded for free.

The Millions, a blog about books, the arts, and culture, tracked down one of them nasty old pirates and asked why in goodness gracious are they engaging in such nefarious behavior?

The short answer? The book industry just isn't getting its act together to get electronic book lovers what they want in the way they want.

"By some measures, he's the publishing industry's ideal customer," says The Millions, "an avid reader who buys dozens of books a year and enthusiastically recommends his favorites to friends."

Says the unnamed pirate, the e-book industry isn't moving fast enough. They need to "have their ear to the ground and [be] willing to think in new directions and take chances instead of putting their fingers in their ears, closing their eyes, and railing against their customers, as the music industry is doing," he says. "The world is changing and business models have to change with it."

What would publishers have to do to make downloading pirated books less appealing than buying e-copies?

"I guess if every book was available in electronic format with no DRM for reasonable prices ($10 max for new/bestseller/omnibus, scaling downwards for popularity and value) it just wouldn't be worth the time, effort, and risk to find, download, convert and load the book when the same thing could be accomplished with a single click on your Kindle."

Amazon's In Luck: Some Major Publishers Not Sold On Kindle "Agency" Model, So Amazon Can Still Undercut Apple On Price

By Rory Maher, CFA | Feb. 9, 2010, 12:05 PM |

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Amazon is currently in talks with book publishers Macmillan and Hachette about selling e-books via an "agency" model, in which the publisher sets the price and Amazon takes a 30% commission.

Analysts are worried that if the whole publishing industry goes this way, Amazon's ebook dominance (and revenue) will suffer, because publishers will keep ebook prices high to protect physical book sales.

However, one major book publisher we spoke with sees no reason to shift to that model right now or anytime in the near future.

The reason is that book publishers make less money from the agency model than they do from the traditional wholesale model (in which Amazon buys a book license at the full wholesale price, and then sells each copy for whatever it wants, often losing money on the sale).  The agency model, therefore, also leaves publishers less money to pay authors and agents. 

According to one executive we spoke with, it's also still unclear if Amazon will continue to command its dominant 90% share of the e-book market, so there isn't much reason to set a precedent by adopting a model that makes everyone less money per book.

The skepticism about the agency model is bad news for Apple since it means for the time being Apple won't have every major publisher on board with high ebook prices and a 70%/30% revenue split for its iPad e-reader bookstore.  This could allow Amazon to undercut Apple significantly on price and, thereby, limit Apple's sales. 

For Amazon, meanwhile, the publisher's position is helpful in that the whole publishing industry isn't likely to quickly shift to the agency model.  Thus, Amazon can continue to sell some e-books at a lower price than competitors, which should help it maintain strong market share.  However, since Amazon is already caving to two major publishers, the agency model precedent will have been set to some degree and it will lose its pricing power for some of its books.

One in five physicians likely to purchase Apple iPad - study

By AppleInsider Staff

Published: 03:30 PM EST

More than 60 percent of physicians who participated in a new survey have shown interest in Apple's recently announced iPad, and one in five already intend to purchase one.

This week, Epocrates Inc., the developer of mobile applications used by more than 900,000 healthcare professionals worldwide, revealed a new study of more than 350 clinicians conducted in the wake of Apple's iPad announcement. Among those surveyed, 9 percent said they plan to buy an iPad when it is immediately available, and another 13 percent intend to purchase one in the first year.

In addition, another 38 percent of respondents said they are interested in the iPad, but would like to obtain more information about the product before they decide whether or not they will purchase.

With a belief the iPad will gain traction in the health care community, Epocrates also announced this week that it intends to customize its clinical reference application, which is already available for the iPhone and iPod touch, for the iPad.

"By optimizing our software for the iPad, we are capitalizing on the larger screen real estate and interactivity provided by this sophisticated device," said Rose Crane, chief executive officer of Epocrates. "We are committed to providing the most productive experience at the point of care, keeping physicians informed and focused on the patient rather than searching for answers."

'We are continuing to explore the advanced capabilities of the iPad and ways it can help Epocrates address the evolving healthcare technology needs."

Epocrates said that its medical program is currently in use by more than one in five physicians. The software has more than 275,000 physician subscribers using its software, available for iPhone, BlackBerry and Palm. More than 900,000 clinicians worldwide use Epocrates.

The company's software was featured by Apple at its iPhone Software Roadmap event in 2008. The Epocrates medical reference application was the first available on the App Store.

The study follows news earlier this week that some hospitals are looking at potential applications for the iPad. One San Francisco program, dubbed "Destination Bedside," aims to use tablets to provide X-rays, charts, prescriptions and notes to hospital workers at the touch of a finger.

The success of Apple's iPad in the medical field will likely depend on the creation of third-party applications for the device like Epocrates. In addition to a number of bundled applications, the iPad will have access to Apple's App Store, which now offers more than 140,000 different options.

The iPad has a starting price of $499 and is scheduled to ship by the end of March. The 3G-enabled version, which carries a $130 premium, should arrive a month later.

Deciphering the iPad – Is It A New Category Or A New Statement?

February 2nd, 2010 by Brian Prentice · 5 Comments

For reasons that still stupefy me, Apple seems to be one of the scant few companies in our industry that understands the power of simplicity. This goes way, way beyond user interfaces and gesture recognition. Their skill is both in matching functionality to purpose and being able to identify purposes which are meaningful. That is the true essence of simplicity.

I have been somewhat amused at the extent to which the digital intelligentsia are trying to assess the iPad by deconstructing it’s feature set. The logic is clear – the more things the iPad (or any product for that matter) does the more people it will appeal to. Therefore, for every missing feature one must subtract a segment of its potential audience in order to determine its total market appeal. This thinking is most humorously conveyed by the deep disappointment Adolf Hitler felt on learning what wasn’t included in the iPad.

This logic, however, is flawed. I am convinced that Apple went the other direction. They found a target audience and determined what features were necessary to meet their minimum expectations. Who is this audience? It’s the vast sea of humanity that sees the computer as merely an appliance. And appliance computing nowadays boils down to four categories; 1) creating simple documents, 2) storing and accessing digital content, 3) exploring the internet and, 4) interacting with friends and family. As an appliance, the iPad is a near perfect fit. It does what the Mac family shouldn’t and the iPod family can’t.

There’s a lot of different people that fall into this category. It could be the student that does a little word processing for homework, a bunch of research on the internet and a whole lot gaming. Maybe it’s the retired guy who keeps up with former colleagues and stores his grandkids school photos. Maybe its the stay-at-home mom who coordinates her children’s activities, does some online shopping and stays on top of family health issues. But what so many of these people share is a fatigue with computing devices that force them to navigate a sea of superfluous functionality to achieve their modest objectives. Computing devices designed by the digital intelligentsia for the digital intelligentsia.

In this regard I don’t see the iPad as a tablet – whatever the heck that is. I consider it a technically-sophisticated anti-technologist statement. It is designed to debunk the conventional wisdom that the only way to find a common intersection between the diverse needs of different human beings is to build products with as many doohickies and thingamabobs as possible.

If the iPad turns out to be the success that Gartner, and others, are predicting then this will largely be a testament to the power of design thinking and Apple’s commitment to it. Design thinking doesn’t concern itself with the reaction of the deconstructionists. In fact, I think the iPad brand will only get stronger the more the technologists reject it for lack of this feature or that.

The most compelling aspect of the iPad, in my mind, is its restraint.

And that’s a concept that I sincerely hope many more participants in the IT industry will grok onto sometime soon.

Textbook Firms Ink E-Deals For iPad

 

By JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG And YUKARI IWATANI KANE

Major textbook publishers have struck deals with software company ScrollMotion Inc. to adapt their textbooks for the electronic page, as the industry embraces a hope that digital devices such as Apple Inc.'s iPad will transform the classroom.

The publishers are tapping the know-how of ScrollMotion Inc. to develop textbook applications and test-prep and study guides for the iPad.

"People have been talking about the impact of technology on education for 25 years. It feels like it is really going to happen in 2010," said Rik Kranenburg, group president of higher education for the education unit of McGraw-Hill Cos. and one of the publishers involved in the project.

Other publishers include Houghton Mifflin Harcourt K-12, which is a unit of Education Media & Publishing Group Ltd.; Pearson PLC's Pearson Education, and Washington Post Co.'s Kaplan Inc., known for its test-prep and study guides.

Many developers and publishers are working on applications that will work on the iPad and other digital devices. Publishers have been investing heavily in digital education in recent years.

Compass Intelligence, a market research firm in Scottsdale, Ariz., estimates that technology spending in the U.S. educational market could grow to $61.9 billion in 2013, from $47.6 billion in 2008.

So far, digital education has largely been confined to desktops and laptops, but many college students have been slow to embrace e-textbooks on their computers. Portability could make the difference, however.

Maureen McMahon, president of Kaplan Publishing, said a recent Kaplan study showed that students remain big fans of printed books but that they would be more receptive to e-textbooks on portable digital devices.

Whether the iPad will be the digital device to transform the classroom remains to be seen. "Nobody knows what device will take off, or which 'killer app' will drive student adaptations. Today they aren't reading e-textbooks on their laptops. But ahead we see all kinds of new instruction materials," said Mr. Kranenburg.

Though Apple didn't outline its strategy to target the educational sector with its iPad last week, people familiar with Apple's thinking have said that the iPad's use in schools was one of the focal points of discussions in developing the product. In its exploration of electronic book technology, it thought particularly about how it could re-invent textbooks, these people said. Apple declined to comment on the role of textbooks on the iPad. Apple has an edge in the educational sector becauseits Macintosh computers have always enjoyed a strong following in the academic sphere, and it already offers educational audio and video content through its iTunes U service.

The iPad also will be helped by the interest that schools have always had in tablet-form computers. Science teachers, for example, could use them for taking lab notes, which often use a combination of sentences, charts and mathematical equations, while others could use them on field trips. "This is the beginning of handheld education," said John Lema, chief executive of ScrollMotion.

But the iPad faces competition from other devices, notably the cheap portable laptop computers known as "netbooks" that can be purchased for a couple hundred dollars, and that have already started making in-roads in schools. Amazon Inc., which initially failed in its attempt to pitch its bigger-sized Kindle DX to schools, says it has plans to offer "active content" that works more like programs and less like plain books.

Jeanne Hayes, an educational consultant in Littleton, Colo., said the iPad's lower-than-expected entry-level price of $499 will interest schools, but some of them may not be able to purchase the device right away if they've already purchased netbooks.

"It will be a matter of how Apple represents this to schools and how they fold it into their offerings," said Ms. Hayes.

It's also unclear whether ScrollMotion will emerge as the leading applications provider, with many others in the works. A closely held New York-based firm, ScrollMotion has already developed applications for Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch. ScrollMotion takes digital files provided by publishers for the iPad, adapts them to fit on the device, and then adds enhancements such as a search function, dictionaries, glossaries, interactive quizzes and page numbers.

The features of its iPad deal with publishers include applications to let students play video, highlight text, record lectures, take printed notes, search the text, and participate in interactive quizzes to test how much they've learned and where they may need more work.

Why the iPad May Yet Be Good News For Newspapers

Posted by: Peter Burrows on January 28

Okay, so Steve Jobs didn’t save journalism as we know it when he launched the iPad on Jan. 27. The company unveiled no sweeping partnerships, and didn’t introduce any new revolutionary-sounding business models.

But don’t dismiss Apple’s ability to help publishers just yet, with this intriguing new device. Let me be clear: I don’t know for sure what Apple plans to do (who knows, maybe Apple doesn’t either). But it seems to me Apple said enough for us to make some assumptions about general direction, that could bode well for print news organizations that want to create iPad versions of their publications.

So here are my predictions:

1. A More Hands-Off Approach: Apple could have announced an iNewstand (or somesuch name) wing of the iTunes store yesterday, along with the new iBook Store. But it didn’t. Instead, it had the New York Times get up and show off an App it is building specifically for the iPad. So it’s no leap to assume Apple plans to adopt the App Store model used by iPhone developers, which would give publishers far more control of their own businesses than music labels and Hollywood studios have had (and come March, book publishers). All of those media types are sold straight from the iTunes store, enabling Apple to set pricing, choose what promotions to run, and essentially own the relationship with the consumer. “It looks like Apple is not trying to position itself as a middleman [in the journalism business],” says a relieved Roger Fidler, program director for digital publishing at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute. “That opens up far more opportunities for newspapers.”

2. A Rising Tide Of Apps, And Increasingly Lucrative Ones: If I’m right about this Apps-based approach, then of course there was little blockbuster news at the launch. Only a handful of developers had even seen the iPad before launch day. The situation isn’t that different from what happened with the iPhone. When it was launched in 2007, there were zero apps—of course, since the App Store wasn’t launched until a year later. But it didn’t take long for the apps to begin piling up after that, to more than 130,000 today.

That’s a tough act to follow. But if the iPad gets off to even a decent start, you can bet most major pubs will be creating iPad versions in short order. Their content will look great on that big screen, and will be more enjoyable to navigate using the multi-touch screen. And if they don’t do an app, the only other way of reaching readers through the iPad is through its super-fast browser. That’s not much help; it’s just a more convenient way for readers to get to the free content that has undermined or at least complicated the viability of so many of their businesses in recent years.

Customers are more likely to pay at least something for an App—say, $9.99 a month for a monthly subscription (Amazon, for example, charges $13.99 for a month of the New York Times). They offer convenient one-click access, faster performance and can be useful even when there’s no 3G service (not exactly an unknown occurence). As Apple rolls out new software tools, publishers should be able to spice up their iPad apps even more, to further differentiate them from websites. And once people get used to using a pub’s App, they’re less likely to spend as much time on the Web sipping articles for free via Google News or other aggregation sites. Which brings me to the topic of…

3. Advertising: As we reported in our cover story, Apple vs. Google, earlier this month, Apple plans to add technology to let publishers and other developers include new kinds of ads in their Apps—ones that are more fun, more useful, and possiby more targetted to your particular interests and location. For example, you might have a notification pushed to you that tickets for your favorite band have just gone on sale. Rather than be linked to Ticketmaster.com or the band’s home-page, you could potentially be prompted to simply buy them through iTunes—to grab your seats before they sell out, using the credit card you (and 100 million other people) already have on file with Apple. That’s just one of the ideas mobile ad experts have suggested to me. To the extent Apple succeeds with this plan, publications might even be able to take back some of the ad revenues they’ve lost to Google and others on the Net in recent years.

4. Apple Could Use Content As a Competitive Weapon Against Amazon, Google And Others: Let’s face it, Apple can do just fine without putting the screws to its content partners. The company’s core business—selling computers and mobile devices—has never been healthier. On Jan. 25, the company announced a 32% increase in sales for its most recent quarter, with 41% gross margins that are the highest in any quarter in the company’s history, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

That’s not to say Steve Jobs is going to cut a cushy deal with anyone just because it can afford to. Fat chance. But he may choose to do this because it could give him an advantage over key rivals such as Amazon and Google. While he makes his money on the hardware, Amazon makes money by selling content—so would be less likely to willingly give up as much margin on newspaper and magazine sales as Apple. Google makes its money on advertising, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple offer better economics to publishers that use its ad-serving technology rather than Google’s. After all, the iPad’s success depends in large part on Apple’s ability to get the most compelling Apps on the device. If making it worth Old Media’s time to do so makes life more difficult for Amazon and Google, so much the better.

iPad Buying Guide

Written on January 28, 2010 by Weldon Dodd and 26 people have commented

We all know that you want an iPad. You haven’t even touched one yet, but you have read every word published on the device since before it was announced on Wednesday’s event. You’ve been up all night dreaming about surfing the web, and looking at your address book in split view. You can’t wait to download iTunes movies and watch them on the gorgeous 9.7″ LED-backlit, glossy widescreen multi-touch display with fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating.

In fact, you have been repeating that last sentence in your head all morning as you watch the keynote again after downloading the high-res podcast from iTunes. You are making a list of which iBooks you will buy from the iBookstore so you can decide which title will be the first to have it’s icon gracefully displayed on your faux wood electronic bookshelf.

You are going to buy an iPad. All that is left to decide is which one. This, unfortunately, could be a difficult decision.

What Are the Choices?

There are six variations on the iPad with various combinations of storage, with and without 3G support, ranging from $499 to $829.

Somewhere in that $330 spread is the perfect iPad for you.

Storage Capacity

You have three choices here: 16GB, 32GB or 64GB. How do you decide how much you need?

iPhone apps are generally pretty small (a quick survey of the 400+ apps I have in my library indicates that they range from 56KB for single-purpose utilities to almost 200MB for some 3D games). It would take a lot of apps to fill up your iPad, even when you consider that the larger screen size will likely require iPad-specific games with larger graphic assets to fill that amazing screen from edge to edge with gaming goodness.

Email and all that doesn’t require a ton of onboard storage either, especially when you are using something like Gmail, Google Apps, Yahoo, IMAP, Exchange or any other solution that keeps most of your archived messages on the server.

Music and movies are the big culprits here. If you want to carry around a lot of music and movies on the device, you will want the bigger capacity iPad. And, if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll want to watch movies on this thing and show them off to your friends.

The real kicker is the pricing. It costs $100 to go from 16GB to 32GB ($6.25/GB) and $100 to go from 32GB to 64GB ($3.13/GB). The storage is actually getting cheaper as you buy more. Don’t be conservative here. Buy the biggest model you can afford.

To 3G or not to 3G? That is the Question

The 3G model offers nearly on-demand access to a wide-area network when you are out of range of Wi-Fi. In the United States, that access will cost you $14.99 for data transfer up to 250MB for the month, or $29.99 for unlimited data. With no contract required, you can sign up for these data contracts on the iPad itself only when you need it (no word yet if you can upgrade mid-month from 250MB to unlimited for the prorated difference). In addition, you also get access to AT&T hotspots as part of your subscription.

But Why Would You Want 3G?

Adding the 3G support to the iPad will cost an extra $130 on top of whatever size model you choose. I think the biggest reason to splash out for 3G is that this model includes support for assisted GPS. You won’t get GPS at all on the Wi-Fi model. The mapping application demonstrated during the iPad introduction (shown at 22:35) looks absolutely stunning andis  a huge improvement over the iPhone. The speed on the new A4 processor in the iPad really takes the Maps app to the next level.

The only other reason to get the 3G model is to plan ahead for the possibility that you might need to use the iPad while not near Wi-Fi. If you’re taking this thing out to client meetings, conferences with sketchy Wi-Fi, or Apple press events filled to capacity, you will love having a wide-area network option available.

You might consider using a MiFi or other mobile hotspot to provide connectivity for your iPad while out and about, but those solutions all require long-term contracts. If you already have a MiFi or similar device, then just use that. If you don’t, the 3G model at least offers the opportunity to get online when you need it.

Other Considerations

iPhone Users: If you have an iPhone, the iPad 3G might not be necessary. If you are really in a pinch where you can’t use Wi-Fi, you can rely on your iPhone until you get back into range of an access point.

Upgradeitis: It seems obvious that there will be a new iPad next year. Who knows, it might even have a camera. If you think you might upgrade next year, consider what you need for the next 12 months. I think the two models that will have the highest resale demand in 2011 will be the low-end $499 device because of the price point and the $829 64GB 3G model because it will still be appealing to a power user that is looking for a used iPad to save a little money over next year’s high-end model.

What Am I Buying?

I was leaning towards the $829 3G model because I know I will love the iPad but now I’m pretty sure I’ll get the $499 Wi-Fi model. I want an iPad, but I already have a MacBook Pro and an iPhone. If the iPad proves indispensable, I will sell the original iPad once iPad 2.0 comes out and buy the biggest and baddest model then.

The iPad Big Picture

Wednesday, 27 January 2010

There was a meta-message in today’s Apple event, not about the iPad in particular, but rather about Apple as a whole. Jobs’s brief preamble included a bit of extra emphasis on the fact that the Apple now generates over $50 billion per year in revenue. (Apple also emphasized this $50 billion revenue thing in their PR two days ago announcing their Q1 2010 financial results.) He also said that when you consider MacBooks as “mobile” devices, Apple generates more revenue from mobile hardware than any other company in the world; the three competitors he singled out were Sony, Samsung, and Nokia. The adjective he used was “bigger”.

Lastly, there’s the fact that the iPad is using a new CPU designed and made by Apple itself: the Apple A4. This is a huge deal. I got about 20 blessed minutes of time using the iPad demo units Apple had at the event today, and if I had to sum up the device with one word, that word would be “fast”.

It is fast, fast, fast. The hardware really does feel like a big iPhone — and a big original iPhone at that, with the aluminum back. (I have never liked the plastic 3G/S iPhones as much as the original in terms of how it feels in my hand.) I expected the screen size to be the biggest differentiating factor in how the iPad feels compared to an iPhone, but I think the speed difference is just as big a factor. Web pages render so fast it was hard to believe. After using the iPhone so much for two and a half years, I’ve become accustomed to web pages rendering (relative to the Mac) slowly. On the iPad, they seem to render nearly instantly. (802.11n Wi-Fi helps too.)

The Maps app is crazy fast. Apps launch fast. Scrolling is fast. The Photos app is fast.

The iPad hardware is exactly what you think. It looks great, it feels great. It’s very nice to hold. (People are complaining about the wide bezel around the display, but without that, where would your thumbs go? You don’t want your thumb that’s holding the device to cover on-screen content or register as a touch. Trust me, it’s just right.) Just like with the iPhone, it’s all in the software. And the software is obviously marvelous in many ways. It is clearly the result of deep thought and hard work.

But: everyone I spoke to in the press room was raving first and foremost about the speed. None of us could shut up about it. It feels impossibly fast. (And our next thought: What happens if Apple has figured out a way to make a CPU like A4 that fits in an iPhone? If they pull that off for this year’s new iPhone, look out.)

Apple doesn’t talk much about the technical details of the iPhone. They never talk about CPU speed or the name of the chip being used. They don’t tell you how much RAM is in there. Part of their vision for moving computers from technical culture to popular culture is about getting away from defining these things by their technical specs. So the prominent talk about A4 is telling. This is something they want us to notice.

I mentioned this year-ago quote from Apple COO Tim Cook the other day, but it’s apt here, too. Cook told BusinessWeek, “We believe in the simple, not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.”

Apple now owns and controls their own mobile CPUs. There aren’t many companies in the world that can say that. And from what I saw today, Apple doesn’t just own and control a mobile CPU, they own and control the hands-down best mobile CPU in the world. Software aside (which is a huge thing to put aside), it may well be that no other company could make a device today matching the price, size, and performance of the iPad. They’re not getting into the CPU business for kicks, they’re getting into it to kick ass.

They’re Microsoft and Intel rolled into one when it comes to mobile computing. In the pre-taped video Apple showed, Bob Mansfield said of the iPad, “No one else could do it.” Only Apple.

And so my takeaway from this — with the bragging about making their own CPUs and their annual revenue and their size compared to companies like Sony, Samsung, and Nokia — is that this is Apple’s way of asserting that they’re taking over the penthouse suite as the strongest and best company in the whole ones-and-zeroes racket.

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