Apple on Wednesday launched its much-awaited iPad tablet device, a handheld that
will allow users to view movies, surf the Internet and play
high-definition games.

“We want to kick off 2010 by introducing a truly magical and
revolutionary product,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said, after taking the
stage in front of a throng of media and IT luminaries at the Yerba Buena
Center for the Performing Arts in San Francisco.

“Everybody uses a laptop and smartphone. A question has arisen: Is
there room for a third device between a [laptop] and smartphone?” Jobs
asked. “We’ve got something that is. We call it the iPad.”

iPad features include the ability to browse the Web
and listen to music, with photo, calendar, and maps applications. It
will work with the iTunes store to let users discover and purchase
music, movies and TV shows, Jobs added.

When the iPad is turned sideways, it orients the view for the user.
“It’s a dream to type on,” Jobs said, demonstrating that feature.

The product’s launch comes after a few years of rumors and
speculation surrounding Apple’s development of a tablet-like device.
Media outlets and enthusiast sites reported the device would fill a
product gap for Apple between its iPhone smartphone and MacBook device.
The Financial Times reported in December that Apple would host an event
to launch the tablet-like device in January.

But Apple isn’t the first company to launch a tablet. Some of the
top PC makers including Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Asus showed off
multimedia tablet prototypes with different screen sizes at the Consumer
Electronics Show earlier this month. Many of those handheld devices
were based on Google’s Android Linux OS and provided the ability to surf
the Internet, view multimedia and read e-books.

An HP Slate running Windows 7 was shown by Microsoft CEO Steve
Ballmer during a keynote address at CES. The Slate will ship this year.
Dell also reminded everyone that it is developing a similar device,
showing a tablet with a 5-inch screen.

Executives from PC companies have said the rapid growth of mobile
Internet and touchscreens created a new class of tablet computing
devices. But Apple has an edge over the PC makers as it has a history of
introducing products like the iPhone and iPod that have changed the way
devices are designed.

The rumors helped Apple define the tablet market even though it
hasn’t shipped a device, said Roger Kay, president of Endpoint
Technologies Associates in a research note sent in early January. Tablet
launches by other PC makers were perhaps triggered by Apple’s threat to
enter the market.

“One has to wonder, if Apple were not aiming at this market with
its trademark accuracy, whether the rest of the industry would

care so much,” Kay wrote.

(Additional details to come.)