Apple Inc., seeking to revolutionize the publishing business in the same way the iPod transformed the music industry, announced a tablet computer starting at $499, a price that was 50 percent lower than some analysts predicted.
The iPad can display full Web pages, books and iPhone applications, and has a touch-screen keyboard, Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs said Wednesday at a company event in San Francisco. The product will come in two versions: one with just a Wi-Fi connection and another that also uses third-generation mobile-phone service.
“At that price, they’ll sell millions,” said Hakim Kriout, a portfolio manager at New York-based Grigsby & Associates, which owns Apple shares. “It’s very, very affordable for what it does. This is going to add a huge revenue stream for Apple.”
Jobs, 54, has spent the past decade transforming the maker of the Mac computer into a consumer-electronics juggernaut. The iPad builds on the digital media and mobile technology behind Apple’s market-leading iPod and the iPhone, and will challenge dedicated e-book readers from Amazon.com Inc. and Sony Corp.
A 16-gigabyte version of the basic Wi-Fi model will sell for $499. A 32-gigabyte version will cost $599, and a 64-gigabyte device will be $699. The 3G models won’t be available until April. Those will range in price from $629 to $829.
Amazon.com’s Kindle, the market leader in electronic books, costs $259 for a version with a black-and-white 6-inch display. A model with a 9.7-inch screen costs $489. Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York, had predicted that the Apple tablet would cost about $750.
Sony’s most expensive e-reader, which has a wireless connection and a 7.1-inch screen, costs $399.99. Smaller models sells for $299.99 and $199.99.
Apple also showed off an electronic-book reader application for the iPad and is opening an e-book store. Pearson Plc’s Penguin, Harper Collins Publishers, CBS Corp.’s Simon & Schuster, Macmillan and Hachette Book Group have signed deals to offer electronic books on the iPad.
Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., rose $1.94 to $207.88 at 4 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares, which more than doubled last year, climbed to a record $215.04 earlier this month on speculation that the tablet was coming. – Bloomberg
