TORONTO – Apple began selling a sizeable new addition to its iPad lineup Tuesday, after announcing last week their full-sized 4th generation iPads would be available with 128 gigabytes of storage, up from 64 gigabytes (GB).
The new iPad went on sale to customers in Canada and the U.S. Tuesday morning for $799(CDN) for a WiFi model and $929(CDN) for those equipped with cellular data. Apple’s website showed a shipping time of 1-3 business days for Canadian consumers.
The memory increase, which does not apply to Apple’s iPad Mini, is the first time since the iPad’s release the company has upgraded the memory in the devices – all prior versions of the iPad were only available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.
The sizeable new iPad debuted just four days before Microsoft’s Surface Pro hits shelves, one of the only other consumer “tablets” offering a capacity of up to 128GB of storage. None of the Android tablets on the market offer this much storage.
But, the Surface Pro is more than just a tablet – it’s a full-fledged computer, complete with Window’s desktop operating system, the ability to run full programs like Photoshop and an HD connection port and a full-size USB port.
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Some believe that Apple releasing a 128GB version of its iPad was in response to Microsoft’s Surface tablet.
But some argue that the most recent addition to Apple’s iPad lineup comes as users adapt to using their tablets more and more.
“As people are using tablets more and more, they are finding new and innovative uses for them, including more media to consume and files and images to store,” read a report by Wired.
Despite Apple introducing iCloud, a cloud-based storage option where customers can store their photos, files and make a backup of their device, Apple may have introduced the larger capacity iPad for users who love applications – which can’t be stored to the cloud, taking up storage on the physical device.
The average app takes up about 9 megabytes of space, but can range much higher for apps with large databases and include maps, or regional information – such as travel apps – or games with powerful graphics.
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