By LORRAINE LUK

TAIPEI--Apple Inc. is working with component suppliers and its assembler in Asia for the trial production of its next generation iPad from October, people familiar with the situation say, as it looks to stay ahead of the competition in the fast-growing tablet computer market.

The Cupertino, Calif., company has ordered key components such as display panels and chips for a new iPad it is aiming to launch in early 2012, said the people.

The next generation iPad is expected to feature a high resolution display - 2048 by 1536 compared with 1024 by 768 in the iPad 2 - and Apple's suppliers have already shipped small quantities of components for the sampling of the iPad 3. Suppliers said Apple has placed orders for a 9.7-inch screen device.

Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu in Beijing declined to comment. 

 

One component supplier to Apple said the company has already placed orders for parts for about 1.5 million iPad 3s in the fourth quarter."Suppliers will ramp up production and try to improve the yield rate for the new iPad in the fourth quarter before its official launch in early 2012," said a person at the supplier.

Apple, like many other big personal-computer and consumer-electronics brands, doesn't actually make most of its products. It hires manufacturing specialists - mainly companies from Taiwan that have extensive operations in China - to assemble its gadgets based on Apple's designs. They use parts from other outside suppliers, many of which also are from Taiwan and elsewhere in Asia. The arrangement frees Apple and its fellow vendors from running complicated, labor-intensive production lines, while the ability of Taiwanese companies to slash manufacturing costs helps cut product prices over time.

Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. assembles the iPad. A company spokesman declined to comment.

Apple reported blowout earnings for its fiscal third quarter ended June 25 in part due to the popularity of its iPad. The company sold 9.3 million units in the quarter, nearly triple what it sold a year earlier. Together with the robust sales of the iPhone smartphone and other electronics devices, Apple's net profit for the period more than doubled to $7.31 billion from $3.25 billion a year earlier.

Still, the next-generation iPad would be coming at a time when there's more competition in the market. Companies from Samsung Electronics Co., Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., ZTE Corp. and Toshiba Corp. have launched similar devices using Google Inc.'s Android software. Apple is also embroiled in several lawsuits spanning various countries with Samsung Electronics over alleged patent infringement.

 

According to Men's Health rankings, Plano and San Jose are addicted to tablets, while Toledo is probably still running Windows 2000

Where do early adopters of consumer tech congregate in the U.S.? Not where you might expect, according to a survey appearing in the September issue of Men’s Health, which hits newsstands Tuesday.

 

Plano, Texas, beat out both San Jose (2) and San Francisco (3) as the most tablet- (or at least iPad-) friendly city in the U.S. And despite its high concentration of both Apple and Best Buy stores, New York City landed in the middle of the pack at 42.

Toledo, Ohio, ranked dead last.

To determine the rankings, editors looked at tablet use based on ad impressions from mobile ad network Chitika, the number of Apple and Best Buy stores per capita, and the percentage of households that own tablets, notebooks or laptops according to Mediamark Research.

Why did Plano end up on top? Texas’s ninth-largest city happens to be home to a number of corporate headquarters of prominent technology companies, including Dell Services, Ericsson, HP Enterprise Services, Siemens PLM Sotware and Alliance Data, David Zinczenko, Rodale EVP and editor in chief of Men’s Health, points out. (J.C. Penney, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Frito-Lay and Pizza Hut are also headquartered in Plano.)

But iPad adoption isn’t just concentrated in high-tech centers; it also appears to be correlated to education levels, Zinczenko suggests. After all, California has the largest state university system, and many other college towns appear toward the top of the list as well.

“Let’s look at who was in line when the iPad 2 went on sale: affluent, well-educated people who had $800 bucks to throw around in the middle of a deep recession,” he says. “It’s not that [college-educated people are] smarter than the people in Toledo, it’s just that they were fortunate enough to have the dough to attend college. As their educations progressed, their choice of leisure interests migrated toward words, narratives and research-driven pastimes,” all of which the iPad accommodates, he argues.

“But if my car broke down, I’d prefer for it to break down in Toledo; I’d probably be able to find somebody to help me get it started, or help me push it to the service station,” he jokes.

---

Most Tech-Friendly

---

1. Plano, TX
2. San Jose, CA
3. San Francisco, CA
4. Boise, ID
5. Austin, TX
6. Oakland, CA
7. San Diego, CA
8. Durham, NC
9. Chesapeake, VA
10. Colorado Springs, CO

---

35. San Antonio C+

Least Tech-Friendly

---

91. Laredo, TX
92. Norfolk, VA
93. Milwaukee, WI
94. Cheyenne, WY
95. Stockton, CA
96. Cincinnati, OH
97. Baltimore, MD
98. Detroit, MI
99. Fort Wayne, IN
100. Toledo, OH

For the complete list, see here.

 

ChangeWave Research just put out a new report on consumer interest in tablets, and surprise, surprise, the iPad is the number one by a mile.

82% of the 3,091 consumers ChangeWave polled say they want an iPad. The second most interesting competitor? OTHER. Not the Xoom, not the Galaxy Tab, not the Playbook, but something else. Yikes!

At the time ChangeWave did this survey, the Xoom wasn't out, but it had been announced. Maybe some marketing from Motorola will help?

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-ipad-xoom-playbook-2011-3?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Silicon+Alley+Insider+Chart+Of+The+Day&utm_campaign=SAI_COTD_031011#ixzz1GaBygBo2

Justin Wagoner's tent outside temporary Knox Street store in Dallas
With the iPad 2 set for launch at 5:00 PM on Friday and Apple not offering pre-orders, those looking to get their hands on the updated tablet device as soon as possible may find themselves facing long waits to secure spots near the front of their respective lines. And just like with the iPhone 4, Dallas resident Justin Wagoner has already pitched a tent outside his local Apple Store in order to be first in line for the iPad 2 launch on Friday.

One catch for Justin is that the Knox Street retail store that has been the usual location for his campouts is currently closed for expansion, with Apple now operating out of a temporary location around the corner.

Justin Wagoner passing time in-store waiting for iPad 2 launch
Seeking to capitalize on his growing publicity as an early camper for Apple devices, Justin has launched a new site at iJustinOfficial.com to document his wait. He will also be offering a live video broadcast on Ustream as the iPad 2 launches.

 

It's not often I am right, but give me credit on this one!  I knew before it came out the iPad would be a game changer.  It has exceeded even my expectations.  Congrats to Apple for creating yet another game changing product!

Apple's iPad business has only been around for 9 months, but it has already generated almost $10 billion in revenue for Apple. 

Specifically, Apple shipped 14.8 million iPads last year, generating $9.6 billion in revenue. Last quarter alone, it shipped 7.3 million iPads for $4.6 billion in sales. 

That's amazing. And what's more amazing is that it's almost the same amount of revenue as Apple's almost-27-year-old Mac business, which just put in its best quarter ever, generating $5.4 billion in revenue. 

But perhaps what's most remarkable is how fast Apple is still growing overall. At $26.7 billion in sales last quarter, Apple still grew 71% year-over-year. Crazy.

Last summer I convinced my dad to buy an iPad and he loves it! When I was visiting him at Thanksgiving, we were comparing notes on apps and reviewing the newly released IOS 4.0.  The one big flaw, at least from our perspective, was the limitation on printing.  We found an app that solves this problem quite well.  My dad has been kind enough to write a blog post for me to share this information with you.  Thanks dad!

Printing from iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch

By Thomas R. Cuthbert, Jr., Ph.D.

Steve Jobs introduced the Apple iPad January 27, 2010; apparently the only way to print files was by emailing to a computer with its attached printer. Then in September 2010 Apple announced that AirPrint Wi-Fi wireless printing and multitasking capabilities would be a part of the November 2010 release of the free iOS4.2 software update for the iPad, iPhone (except 3G), and iPod Touch [1]. This article reviews the various ways the AirPrint feature has been adapted to make printing from those devices more efficient.

 Cloud web-based file hosting system Dropbox [2] was launched in 2008 to enable any Internet user to store and share files and folders and incidentally to print from an iPad. Although Dropbox requires a second step to print from a computer to an attached printer, it will have another role later in this article. The cloud-based approach is also used in the new HP Photosmart eStation e-All-in-One, which includes its email address so mail can be routed to it through ePrint, another cloud-based printing system. This HP printer has an exclusive arrangement with the AirPrint feature on Apple’s hand-held devices when they are all are connected to the same Wi-Fi network [3]. The 2-GB Dropbox is free, but the eStation is $400 and has received a qualified review [4].

 I have had a brief but very satisfactory hands-on experience with the $9.99 Printopia Mac PC app; it is not an iOS app for hand-held devices, but a Mac PC preference pane functioning as a print server [5]. When downloaded to your Mac, you will see it in Apple/SystemPreferences/Other with an expanded options window:

Printopia lists all printers connected to your Mac PC by both its USB ports and its local Wi-Fi network. Then you can choose which can be accessed from your hand-held devices, including Dropbox and Send to Mac choices. The latter sends the print job as a PDF or image file to your Mac’s Document/ Printopia folder. When Dropbox is installed on your Mac PC, a blue icon appears on the Menu Bar shown to the right. Click the icon to open the Dropbox folder, access the website, get help, and change preferences.

The iPad apps Mail, Photo, Safari, iBooks, and third-party apps with built-in printing will display a Print Option when the Arrow icon (or other path to print) is tapped as in the figure on the left below. When the Print button is tapped the Printer Options box appears as shown on the right. When your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch is connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your running Mac, you can choose a printer other than that shown (Send to Dropbox is shown here).

If the Mac PC is not powered on or is set to sleep, it also may show “Select printer.” Then pressing the printer button will show a full screen saying “Looking for printers...” and then “No printers found.” Otherwise, a tap on the Printer button enables selection from a scrolling list of printers made available from the Preferences Pane on the preceding page. (Send to Mac has been selected as an example).

The Printopia app has worked well for me if my iMac Apple/SystemPreferences/Energy Saver has Wake for Ethernet ON and Put the Hard Disk to Sleep When Possible OFF.

Also, I found another app, FingerPrint [6], that appears similar to Printopia, but I have not tried it.

 

References

1. http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/09/15airprint.html  

2. http://www.dropbox.com/features

3. http://www.hp.com/sbso/printing/mac/hp-airprint.html

4. http://solution.allthingsd.com/20101214/hp-photosmart-estation-printer-zeen-tablet-review/

5. http://www.ecamm.com/mac/printopia/

6. http://www.collobos.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't want to be overdramatic or 'overplay' this but dad-gummit the iPad has changed my life!  130 days in and I still can't believe how amazing this device is.  I have always had lots of technology toys in my life.  From the Casio Telememo watch to the Palm Pilot to the Treo smartphone, I've had them all!  So why has the iPad created such a stir?  There are three things it does extremely well that have literally changed the way I work and live. First, I love to read... I consistently read three newspapers, six magazines, dozens of blogs, Twitter posts and Facebook updates.  (Not to mention about a book a month!)  Suffice to say I am an avid reader.  The iPad has changes where, when and how I can read.  I subscribe to the Wall St. Journal for the iPad.  It is a great app, easy to update, simple to read and can go anywhere.   For blog reading I love the Pulse app... it makes reading blogs easy and moves quickly between an extract and the full post on the web.  Flipboard is a new app that makes everything look and feel like a magazine.  I use it for reading Twitter and Facebook posts, as well as some magazines.  (I'm hoping that Flipboard and Pulse merge, that would be the perfect reader!)  Instapaper is an incredible app that allows you to "read later" any story you find online.  I recommend it highly.  All in all, I have become a more productive reader with the iPad. The second aspect of the iPad I am amazed by is the business functionality.   I travel a lot and have found that the iPad is almost a complete replacement for my laptop.  I recently was in NYC and had 14 meetings with friends and investors discussing a new company I've been helping.  In each meeting all I had was my iPad and Moleskine calendar.  I simply fired up the Keynote app, set my iPad on the table and stepped through the deck page by page.  It was seamless and made for great conversation.  From calendar to email to presentations, spreadsheets and documents it does it all.  The single downside today is the inability to easily print.  Surely Apple will fix this soon.  (Side note, I can now type about 80% of the speed of my laptop, not bad!)  I have also begun taking meeting notes into my iPad using Notepad Pro.  It is a very handy app and makes meeting recaps quick and easy. Finally, I love the apps!  It has huge entertainment and information value.  I watch streaming movies and TV shows from Nexflix.  I play Words with Friends with my son (and consistently lose!).  There are incredibly functional apps including TripIt, Amazon, Maps, Skype, Flixter, Yelp, Redbox, Starbucks and NYCWay to name a few of my favorites.  I even manage my accounts from my iPad... in fact, just about everything I need is right there in the 10" by 7 1/2" little pad.  I have found myself taking it just about everywhere.  Yes, I have an iPhone too but the size and comfort level of reading the iPad makes it a must have when I am out and about.  It is lightweight and not at all a burden to carry around.  I can't imagine leaving home without it! So if you don't have an iPad I suggest you get one.  Try out a friends for a day and you'll see what I mean.  I know there are imitators on the way.  That will be a good thing in the same way that iPhone imitators have brought better functionality in it as well.  It is a rare occurance in my life when anything exceeds my expectations.  As I sat on my porch on April 3rd waiting for the UPS truck to arrive I was already excited.  Now, 130 days into being an iPad owner, I continue to be blown away and I predict  you will be too! Tom Cuthbert