Clearly Apple and its shareholders were celebrating this week. The company brought out two products — the new iPad and the new Apple TV, its stock nipped at $600 per share (for a short spell), and it won accolades from a survey by prestigious J.D. Power and Associates.
Great. But what's in it for you?
Well, there should be a good supply of new iPads when you are ready to buy. While Apple stores themselves were swamped, other shops in New York City that TechNewsDaily visited were relatively quiet and had stock left at least by late this morning.
Meanwhile, one of our colleagues in Ogden, Utah, got the iPad she ordered early this afternoon instead of by the end of the day, when she had expected it. Her UPS driver said that they were delivering a lot of iPads today, but they all seemed to be making it on time.
And with the excitement of the new iPad and a flood of fresh inventory, Apple is anxious to keep the iPad 2 models moving by dropping the price by $100. And the old model may be just fine.
Our colleagues at sister site LAPTOP Magazine took a close look at the new and old iPad, and didn't find a huge difference in the performance. The improvement in the "retina display" screen is noticeable, but mainly if you stare intensely at it. New apps designed for the screen (such as the Infinity Blade Dungeons game) do take advantage of the better screen quality. But for now there are just a few apps optimized for the new device. iTunes lists 38 "Great Apps for the New iPad."
The new Apple TV, which also came out today, provides some modest upgrades at the same $99 price — such as a jump from 720p to top-end 1080p high-definition. But they are not so dramatic that people who bought the old Apple TV will feel that they have obsolete gear. And some features of the new Apple TV, such as a new interface and playing videos straight from iCloud, are available to older devices via a simple software update.
The stock boom is, of course, great if you own shares, but even good if you don’t. At that valuation, Apple is obviously well-funded and has the power to get what it wants to produce top-notch products — such as plenty of those great retina displays.
Apple's iPhone also got kudos. A consumer survey by J.D. Power yesterday (March 15) ranked the iPhone line way ahead of the competitors — such as the No. 2 HTC Android smartphones. The same survey found that the biggest gripe about smartphones is battery life, where Apple generally smokes Androids. Dying batteries was especially an issue with phones on the fastest, 4G, data networks. So maybe the fact that Apple doesn't yet have a 4G iPhone (just the new iPad) isn't so bad.
At the risk of sounding like a fan bois and goils, it seems that in many cases, what's good for Apple is good for you.