Canadians will be able to get their hands on the latest version of the iPad next Friday.
Apple announced that the device will be released March 16 in the U.S. and is expected to be available north of the border on the same day.
The announcement was made at an event in San Francisco, where Apple CEO Tim Cook boasted how the so-called “post-PC” era of computing is being dominated by the iPad and other Apple products.
The new iPad has a sharper screen with Apple’s retina display technology, increased processing power and an upgraded camera.
It can also access LTE mobile networks, and Apple highlighted Bell, Rogers and Telus as service providers that will offer the high-speed service for the new iPad.
The U.S. starting price for the new iPad is $499; Canadian prices were not immediately revealed.
Cook said Apple sold 172 million “post-PC” devices last year. Those are iPods, iPhones and iPads. Cook says those products now account for 76% of Apple sales.
The company said there are now 585,000 applications available in its online apps store. More than 200,000 of them are for the iPad rather than what Cook calls “blown-up apps for smartphones.”
Apple also announced it is going to start letting users store movies on its iCloud remote storage service, allowing them to access their movies from PCs, iPhones and other Apple devices through the Internet.
The company is also upgrading its Apple TV set-top box so that it can play movies in 1080p format, the highest-resolution commonly used video standard. The small box, which comes with a remote, will still cost US$99. The upgraded version will go on sale next week.
Apple said nearly a third of the apps available for its mobile devices have been built specifically for the iPad.
