Should Consumers Care About The iPad 2?

Yesterday, Steve Jobs took time out from his medical leave to make to the stage. He was at an Apple press conference in San Francisco to announce the second-coming of Apple's latest, greatest toy: the iPad 2.

The tablet PC that arguably altered the mobile computing landscape is set to welcome a thinner, better brother to the world, the device due to land in the UK on 25th March. While the price of the original iPad has now dropped significantly in preparation for the release date – it's just £329 for the basic 16GB WiFi – we have been left to contemplate whether or not its successor is worth the hype.

The details surrounding the iPad 2 have been revealed and the bottom line is that unless your consumers are scrambling for faster performance or want an even thinner device than previously, there's precious little to get excited about.

Here are the facts. The iPad 2 will house two cameras – one on the front for video calls and one on the back for photos. The device will also ship with a new OS (iOS 4.3), a gyroscope and a compass. Beyond those additions, there's very little to mark this out as a significant step up for Apple, although the use of the 1GHz dual-core A5 processor will undoubtedly allow for more power-hungry applications. The new, thinner and lighter design is also in keeping with Apple's updates for its iPod and iPhone lines.

The fact remains, however, that the iPad 2 is very much a minor upgrade for what has proved a huge seller for the Cupertino company. Released under a year ago, the original could surely have stayed on the market for a few months yet, giving Apple an opportunity to come up with some much bigger, and better, than this.

As it stands, this is a minor upgrade for the device, and one that you could argue consumers simply don't need.