iPad 2: What Wasn’t Improved

The iPad seems to be one of those devices that comes out every few years or so and turns the tech world on its head with surprising new features, cool product design, and a jump forward in ease of use. But that was a year ago. When the iPad first came out, it was awesome. Other companies had tried to build tablet computers before, but this was something different. This was something that let you touch the internet with your finger and offered thousands of cool apps that promised to make our lives easier. In the background there were a few people saying, “yeah but it doesn’t have…” But those people were quickly silenced by the general awe of the new product.

A year later, the iPad 2 was announced and the tech world again bowed down to the Apple innovators with cool stuff like a camera and a groovy new processor. But most of the new features added to the new iPad were items that most techies already predicted and expected, and—frankly—could have been included in the iPad 1. So, what is most interesting about the iPad 2 is what features didn’t change.

Memory and Storage

One of the things that doesn’t seem to have improved is the memory. The iPad came with 256MB memory, and the iPad 2 doesn’t seem to have improved on it. The Apple website, curiously, is silent on the issue of RAM for the iPad 2. As well, there has been no improvement in the amount of storage an iPad 2 has over its predecessor. Your selection includes 16, 32, and 64 GB models, just like the iPad 1.

Screen

Also, the screen hasn’t improved at all. Originally, techies speculated that the iPad 2 might be upgraded with a cool new retina display, like it’s little brother, the iPhone. Alas, the screen resolution is no better than the original.

Attachment

Another possible improvement on the iPad 2 over the iPad 1 was speculated to be the loss of the ubiquitous white chord that keeps your iPad tethered to your computer for synching with iTunes. But that didn’t happen either. In these days of wireless everything, isn’t it about time Apple got in the game with wireless synching?

What Was Possible?

Technically, most of these improvements could have been included in the first Apple iPad, including the camera, and would have made the first launch even more spectacular. Instead Apple chose to hold out on some features that seemed like no-brainers to most of the tech world in favor of introducing a modest upgrade instead of a huge leap in functionality and speed a year later. Is Apple getting lazy? Or was this upgrade held out simply so that Apple could garner more headlines a year later without doing much work in the meantime?