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Rivals Intensify Battle as iPad 2 Goes International

The iPad 2 is going global. Apple is unleashing the updated tablet internationally as a slew of potential challengers readied for battle. Taiwanese phone maker HTC has unveiled its first tablet, and Samsung announced two new tablets. Research in Motion meanwhile took the wraps off its BlackBerry-branded Playbook tablet, which runs on its proprietary OS.

Apple's rivals intensified their challenge to the iPad  tablet  computer Wednesday as Apple reaffirmed that its international launch of the iPad 2 would start as planned this week.
Apple said the iPad 2 with Wi-Fi will be available Friday in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Britain.

But the company has sparked angry reactions from iPad fans in India by omitting that country from its release list.

They may well have plenty of choices to comfort them though as a slew of potential challengers were announced at a large mobile industry conference  that started Wednesday in Orlando, Florida.

Samsung, which is widely regarded as among the most powerful iPad challengers, announced two new tablets, both powered by Google's Honeycomb operating system  and coming with screen sizes of 10.1 inches (25.7 centimeters) and 8.9 inches (22.6 centimeters).

Selling for approximately the same price as the iPad 2, both feature dual core processors and are thinner than the market leader, boasting better cameras and higher resolution screens.

Taiwanese phone maker HTC also unveiled its first tablet, called the HTC Evo View 4G that like the previously announced LG G-Slate will be capable of recording 3-D footage. Unlike the iPad and its Android-based rivals, the tablet also features an HTC Scribe digital pen, which lets users draw and write on documents and Web pages.

Research in Motion meanwhile took the wraps off its Blackberry-branded Playbook tablet, which runs on the company's proprietary operating system and which will hit markets on April 19.

Wireless Business Solution Zee Tawasha