Steve Jobs Rises From Sickbed, Unveils Apple's iPad 2

SAN FRANCISCO -- Steve Jobs is up and about, and he has a new iPad.

After much speculation about whether the tech giant's CEO's health problems would keep him from making it today to the Yerba Buena Gardens here to unveil the next-generation tablet computer, he arrived in person to show that nobody unveils a major Apple product but Steve Jobs.

A little over a year ago, Apple virtually invented the tablet market by announcing the original iPad. A host of similar products have entered the market since, but the iPad continues to dominate tablet sales. Now, Apple hopes to continue that domination with the iPad 2, which will retail for $499 and ship on March 11.

"It hasn't just been tweaked," said Jobs, who has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. "It's an all-new design."

Sort of. The Internet has been abuzz with rumors and expectations about the features on the iPad 2 for a few months now. Many of the changes were predicted by bloggers months ago: The iPad 2 will feature faster graphics and a dual-core processor that's about twice as fast as the original. It will feature a gyroscope like the iPhone, as well as front and rear cameras for face time chatting.

The new tablet's real differences will be physical. It will about 33 percent thinner than the original iPad -- even thinner than the iPhone 4. It will also be about two-tenths of a pound lighter, though Jobs stressed that it would have the same battery life as the original.

With the tablet market significantly more competitive than when Apple released the iPad, the company appears to be aggressively going after the competition, deriding other devices as "copycats." With more than 15 million units shipped in nine months in 2010, Apple has a commanding lead -- a 90 percent market share, according to Jobs.

But Apple's domination of other portable electronics is faltering -- the Android emerged as the No. 1. smart phone in 2010. One traditional criticism of the iPhone, of course, has been its reliance on an unstable AT&T network, which Apple answered with a Verizon-ready phone. The iPad 2 will ship with both AT&T and Verizon support.

By releasing the second-generation device months in advance of any competitors, Apple has a head start on keeping its hold on tablet computers. But other devices can't be far behind.

"We think 2011 will be the year of iPad 2," said Jobs.