Tech News

Apple launches iPad 3

Mar 7, 2012, 19:52 GMT

San Francisco - Apple on Wednesday unveiled the third version of its genre-defining iPad tablet computer.

'We've taken it to a whole new level and we are redefining the category that Apple created with the original iPad,' said Apple chief Tim Cook at a press conference in San Francisco.

'It makes amazing improvements over the most fundamental features of the design of the device while retaining everything that millions of people have grown to love about it,' he continued.

The new device, at a starting cost of 499 dollars, features a more powerful, quad-core chip, the A5X processor, a high-definition 2084x1536 Retina display, and a sharper 5 megapixel camera that includes special face detection technology.

Capable of accessing 4G mobile networks and creating its own mobile hotspot, the new iPad boasts download speeds that are five times faster than the current version, Cook said.

The unveiling of the new device had been widely expected, two years after Apple first launched the iPad, and a year after it introduced its successor the iPad 2.

Apple has since sold some 55 million iPads, including 15.4 million in the last quarter, and is predicted to sell some 60 million iPads this year.

The new device can be preordered immediately in the United States, Canada, Britain, France and Germany, and becomes available on March 16.

At the presentation Cook also announced the immediate availability of a new Apple TV device that is now capable of streaming 1080p movies and TV shows.