ON Friday consumers across Europe will finally be able to get their hands on Apple's long awaited iPad. The 9.7-inch touch-screen device allows users to play games, listen to music, check emails and even read newspapers. Gadgets such as the iPod and iPhone have helped Apple post record earnings and the next chapter in its redefinition of the multimedia landscape promises to be as lucrative as the last. Sales of iPads are forecast to add around $1 billion of revenue to the company's next quarter.
Apple has already secured a reputation for extraordinary innovation but in reality much of its success lay not in traditional Research and Development (R&D) but in fields such as complex system integration, design, marketing and integrating the hardware it created with the software it assembled. In the case of the iPod Apple was hugely successful in persuading the music industry, in particular the big record labels, to allow them to put their songs in the iTunes music store.
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Author: WILLIAM LYONS
