How Apple Carved a Pound of Flesh from the iPad 2

[Greg Tito]

How Apple Carved a Pound of Flesh from the iPad 2

The iPad 2 is thinner and lighter, but how exactly did the hardware designers accomplish that feat?

The new IHS iSuppli [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108168-Steve-Jobs-Steals-GDC-Thunder-with-iPad-2-Announcement] spend time meticulously breaking down electronics products and posting their findings online.

The lightness of the iPad 2 comes from using three smaller and thinner batteries to power the unit instead two thick ones. Less plastic was then used to house the batteries, which further reduced the weight and thickness. Finally, a stamped metal sheet that lie behind the glass display was removed. The result is a brand new machine that is totally worth another 800 bones for Apple fans.

The full report from iSuppli will set you back thousands of dollars and provide the manufacturer and model number of each part used to make an iPad 2, but the changes listed in the report were thankfully summarized by the New York Times tech blog. I guess sometimes it helps being a dinosaur.

Source: New York Times [http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/16/how-the-ipad-2-lost-weight/]

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[Bretty]

Totally worth $800, lol.

I wish I was apple and could innovate so easily. I would be rich!

 

[Klumpfot]

0.2 pounds is not 600 grams.

 

[Toasty Virus]

Why...do people buy this stuff, I've had a shot of one, it was a bit crap.

 

[gigastar]

Wait, so to save the wieght they effectively used less of everything?

Brilliant find.

one thing does slightly concern me though, that metal sheet between the screen and the batteries. I gather it was put there for a reason to begin with.

I dont see anyone really going for one of theese just yet when an iPhone is just as good for work. Other than Apple fans, of course.

 

[Actual]

They're a nice idea, but I'm not going to pay as much as I did for my PC for something which can only duplicate some of the purposes of my PC.

 

[dropZero]

Why...do people buy this stuff, I've had a shot of one, it was a bit crap.

Beats me. I'm a big Apple fan myself and even I can't think of a reason why I'd ever need an iPad.

 

[HentMas]

... i dont particularly cared for this huge Ipod touch

i just want to play games, and there are better and more fun things to play than this (or the Itouch)

why do people buy this kinds of things!?

 

[BlackWidower]

I've heard people complain that netbooks are slow at 1.66 GHz. But the iPad is fast at 1 GHz. Now it's dual core that may be true. But I just realized how stupid it is.

 

[Nedoras]

... i dont particularly cared for this huge Ipod touch

i just want to play games, and there are better and more fun things to play than this (or the Itouch)

why do people buy this kinds of things!?

Because it's new and shiny. At least, whenever I ask someone who buys all the latest tech why they buy it, they tell me that it's new and therefor better. I ask if they actually researched how it's better, and they respond by saying they don't need to because new=better. I was amazed. Plus some people buy new tech simply because it's thinner or smaller. I found that to be the case with people who buy the new iPad.

 

[YoUnG205]

When the first ipad came out I thought it was just a worthless and expensive gadget for apple fans but after seeing this it kind of makes me want one. However it does not make me want one enough to spend the amount of money they will be asking for it.

 

[Verlander]

This is the future, I (reluctantly) admit. It does what most people use home computers for, it's more secure than the average persons PC and it's easy for stupid people to understand. Looks like PC's will return to the realm of the computer scientist/geek.

Bit of a shame that it's Apple, and that their app store has the complete monopoly on iPad software. Apple will be the biggest company on the planet before long. Ho hum

Does look good though...

 

[Worgen]

well if it can do as much as the original Ipad then its still a massively over priced toy

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Or, you now, they already knew how to make the original iPad as thin as iPad 2, and added bulk to the first one so they could release the exact same thing a year later. Except 0.000000025% thinner.

 

[fullboat]

.2 pounds is 90.8 grams.

Greg I wish you were my coke dealer.

 

[direkiller]

How Apple Carved a Pound of Flesh from the iPad 2
The biggest differentiator from the original is that the iPad 2 is .2 pounds or 600 grams lighter

.2 lbs is about 90 grams
600grams is over a pound

 

[Drake_Dercon]

hmmmmmmmmmm...

Yup, still not worth shelling out 800 schmuckers... yet.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

There was a fine piece on the 10 o clock show with Charlie Brooker covering the news that there's a new iPad out.


(channel 4 doing their usual dickish 'block it in the UK to force people to go to the Ch4 site to watch it along with some ads' nonsense. It's a 2 minute clip, dammit.

Found his coverage of the original launch too:


'This is a milestone in human history, we've finally become a species that gives standing ovations to a fucking cable!'

Honestly, at the apple launch event, (a launch event for a slightly smaller version of a larger version of the smaller version of the iphone? Just make your mind up, how big should it be?) The audience went batshit fucking crazy, because there's going to be an HDMI cable.

Maybe I'm just an old man, behind the times, but I can't see any reason to own an ipad when you could get a far better laptop for less money and have the advantage of not looking like a complete Nathan Barley.

I'd love to be convinced that Apple do anything in the world better than their competitors except marketing. I of course mean in terms of relative pricem of course an iphone is better than an entry level nokia, but it's also at least 20 times more expensive (but ooh it comes in white and it's got an apple logo on it).

It must be horrible for parents now, it used to be a toy or maybe a pair of nike shoes that your child wanted to 'fit in' with the other kids at school, now it's a £200, easily stealable gadget that needs constant feeding with approved 'apps'.

I seem to remember a cartoon with Jobs and Gates talking to each other and Jobs goes 'remember how we used to say Tablet computers were just cheap, useless novelties?'

'yeah...'

'I fixed "cheap" '

(cue them both falling about laughing.)

 

[gmer412]

Wow. I knew that Apple ripped people off, but this is just insane.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

What's a "New York Times"?