It’s been more than 10 years since apple released the original iPad
Prior to its release netbooks which were basically an inexpensive alternative to laptops
Were all the rage and when apple came along they blew away the competition
And revolutionized portable computing devices forever.
This is part one of the Evolution of the iPad!
Seeing how popular they are now you might be surprised to
Learn that Steve Jobs was initially against making a tablet device.
In a 2003 interview jobs said:
“And we think it's going to fail. You think the tablet's going to… Yes we do.
What about the tablet as a reading device? It's really true if you've got a bunch of rich guys who can afford their third computer.
You know they've got a desktop they got a portable and now they're going to have one of these to read with that's your market.”
Well luckily he changed his mind over the next few years.
Largely thanks to the creative genius of Jony Ive, Apple's former chief design officer.
Ive set about creating a slimmer, more lightweight tablet compared to those available at the time.
He presented his creation to Jobs and the rest as they say is history.
It was an excellent idea to greenlight the project too
Since as of September 2020 more than 500 million iPads have been sold worldwide
And iPad continue to dominate the tablet market.
There are currently four versions of the iPad
Each with numerous releases spanning different generations.
There’s the standard iPad the iPad Mini the iPad air and the iPad Pro
But let's start at the beginning,
And look at the iPad that kickstarted it all!
On the 3rd of April 2010:
“And we call it: ‘the iPad’.”
In apple's own press release regarding the first ever iPad
They hailed it as a revolutionary device for browsing the Web,
Reading and sending email, enjoying photos, watching videos,
Listening to music, playing games, reading eBooks and much more.
Weighing Just 680 grams or 1.5 pounds with a thickness of 0.5 inches
It was indeed lighter and thinner than any other laptop or netbook at the time.
Apple settled on a 9.7 inch model after experimenting with many different sizes
Apple thought about adding handles to the iPad but it's probably good that
They scrapped this idea or else it would have resembled a children's toy or TV dinner tray
Of course the main highlight was the responsive High-resolution multi-touch display
That let users physically interact with applications and content.
In comparison to today's models its specifications might not seem that impressive but back then they were.
Its price was reasonable too costing 499 dollars to own a 16 gigabyte version at launch
With the 32 gigabyte and 64 gigabyte models costing 599 and 699 dollars respectively
300 000 iPads were sold on the very first day it was released
And in less than a month sales hit more than 1 million units.
To put that into context the iPhone took more than twice that time to pass the one million mark
By the end of 2010 almost 15 million iPad had been sold!
Fun fact: it took less than a day for someone to jailbreak the iPad
Jailbreaking is the practice of modifying or removing restrictions
Opposed on a device by the manufacturer or operator.
Basically Twitter user “musclenerd” hacked the iPad on the day it was released
And posted evidence of it on social media
As impressive as this seems it must have caused a slight panic
For apple and had them scrambling for a patch on day one
In March 2011 a follow-up to the iPad hit store shelves
Besides the black model there was now also a white model available
The iPad 2 was 15% lighter and 33% thinner
It featured a 0.3 megapixel front camera and a 0.7 megapixel back camera
Whereas the original had no camera at all
It was also faster due to the dual core A5 processor
Which increased the speed of the CPU by up to two times
And the GPU up to nine times compared to the A4 chip in the original iPad
Although the iPad 2 had improved specifications
Including double the ram to 512 megabytes and the two added cameras the price stayed the same.
People could try the iPads in apple stores which helped to sell the iPads.
“The number one reason people come to our stores is to try a product
That they've heard about but never experienced firsthand.
And the iPad is a product that has to be held, has to be touched to truly understand how magical it is.”
Just like the first iPad the iPad 2 also became a huge success
Selling over 2 million units within a month.
“Today we're announcing the new iPad and it is amazing.”
Regarded as the new iPad the third generation iPad was launched in March 2012.
It was the first iPad to have a retina display
Which significantly increases the resolution of the screen
“It’s got a resolution of 2048 by 1536, that’s 3.1 million pixels.
Four times more than the previous iPad
And over a million more than what's called high definition on other devices
And we've packed all these pixels into a display that's just
9.7 inches but engineering it wasn't as simple as just jamming in more pixels
A pixel is made up of red green and blue Sub pixels
With a signal telling each one when and How much to light up
That’s how colors are created but when you squeeze four times the pixels into the same space
Signals can get crossed colors become Distorted
And images get fuzzy to solve this we had to elevate the pixels onto a Different plane
And separate them from the signals it's a major breakthrough
And it's the key to making the pixels so small and so close together
That the human eye can't even distinguish them
So type looks Razor sharp and you'll see details and photos
That you never knew were there.”
It also had a significantly better rear camera
Boosted to 5 megapixels and capable of
Capturing footage in 1080p at 30 frames per second
The iPad 3 had a new A5X chip
Which increases the GPU by up to two times compared to the A5 chip
The memory was also doubled to 1 Gigabyte.
Annoyingly for people who bought the iPad 3 though
It had the shortest production life of any iPad model.
It was discontinued just seven months after its launch.
With the IPad 4 and later models adding the Lightning connector
This meant that the iPad 3 was the last one to use the old style 30 pin dock connector.
The iPad 4 came out in November 2012
With the same price structure as the previous iPad launches.
However in January 2013 a 128 gigabyte model was made available for $799.
In addition to the lightning connector the fourth generation iPad had an
Upgraded CPU and the front camera was improved to 1.2 Megapixels.
Fun Fact: Although it is now hard to imagine before the iPad was launched
Many thought the name sounded like a feminine hygiene product.
Hence the nickname ‘iTampon’ which even became top trending on twitter.
People made jokes like: “The iPad protecting your data from embarrassing incidents”
And my favorite: “The 64 gig iPad will forever be known as the heavy flow model”
Released alongside the iPad 4 in November 2012 was the first iPad mini
As its name suggests it was a smaller model
With its display measuring 7.9 inches compared to the 9.7 inches of the iPad 4.
“The biggest challenge that we faced was incorporating all these great features
In a much smaller and lighter device.
In order to do this, every part had to be custom designed starting with the display
The glass on the front and back are only 0.2 mm thin
The touch sub subsystem is a mere 0.12 mm thick
It weighs half as much as any we've ever done before.”
Since the iPad mini had less space in its model
The specifications were lowered and it didn’t have a retina screen
It had the same CPU as seen in the iPad 2
The iPad Mini was cheaper than the iPad 4.
With a starting price of 329 dollars for 16 gigabytes of storage.
“Thinner, lighter, more powerful than ever before
And incredibly excitingly new in so many ways that it deserves a new name.”
In November 2013 the iPad air was launched and started a new iPad line
I’m sure you've seen before and after pictures of people losing weight
Well the iPad air is exactly that. It's a thinner and lighter version of the standard iPad.
“The iPad air is so capable and powerful and yet with its breakthrough size
And weight, is the thinnest, lightest and also the most advanced iPad we’ve ever built.”
It measured just 7.5 millimeters in thickness
And was reduced in weight to only 470 grams
Making it 38% lighter than the iPad 4.
The iPad air retained the 9.7 inch screen seen in previous iPad models
But apple reduced the bezels surrounding the display by 43%
The device included all of the top-end features and applications
Seen in the models which preceded it
Though apple's then new A7 chip allowed for quicker autofocus,
Higher video frame rates and faster photo capture among other things.
Apple stated that the A7 chip is twice as fast and has up to
Twice the graphics power compared to its predecessor.
The rest of the specifications were the same as the iPad 4
Including the launch price.
One year after the launch of Apple's first iPad Mini
They released a follow-up that had a retina display
This boosted the screen resolution to 2048 by 1536 pixels
Which at the time was the highest resolution for a device of its size.
The mini's processor was upgraded to the A7 chip seen in the iPad air and iPhone 5s
Making it much faster than its Predecessor besides the upgraded CPU and resolution
It also had double the ram and a 128 Gigabyte storage option
It did cost slightly more than the first IPad mini though
Enthusiasts wouldn't have to wait long before the third installment of the iPad Mini
Which made its way to market in October 2014.
Besides the previous colors there was now also a gold color available
The most exciting feature was the addition of Touch ID. Which allows users to unlock the device
And make purchases using a fingerprint scanner. Other upgrades were very minor
Though it's fair to say that apple were more focused on the success or to the IPad air that year
We’ll discuss that successor and all the other most advanced
And recent iPad in the next part so
Please subscribe
And hit the bell icon