Today marks the 11th anniversary of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs unveiling the original iPad at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
"iPad is our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price," said Jobs, in a press release on January 27, 2010. "iPad creates and defines an entirely new category of devices that will connect users with their apps and content in a much more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before."
The original iPad featured a 9.7-inch display, a single-core Apple A4 chip, up to 64GB of storage, 256MB of RAM, up to 10 hours of battery life, a 30-pin dock connector, and a headphone jack. Notably, the original iPad did not have any cameras. Pricing started at $499 for the Wi-Fi model and $629 for the cellular model in the United States.
We've recapped some of the bigger milestones in iPad history below:
- March 2011: iPad 2 unveiled with thinner and lighter design, dual-core A5 chip, front and rear cameras, and new white color option
- March 2012: Third-generation iPad introduced with a Retina display, 4G LTE support, and 1080p video recording
- October 2012: Fourth-generation iPad switched to a Lightning connector
- October 2012: iPad mini introduced with a smaller 7.9-inch display
- October 2013: iPad Air unveiled with a 64-bit A7 chip, thinner and lighter design, and slimmer bezels
- October 2014: iPad Air 2 ushered in Touch ID and a fully-laminated Retina display
- September 2015: iPad Pro introduced with a large 12.9-inch Retina display, Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard support, A9X chip, and four speakers
- March 2017: Fifth-generation iPad introduced as an entry-level device with a $329 starting price and the same 9.7-inch display size as the original iPad
- June 2017: Second-generation iPad Pro gained a ProMotion refresh rate up to 120Hz
- October 2018: Third-generation iPad Pro marked a major redesign with slimmer bezels, Face ID, and a USB-C connector
- September 2019: Seventh-generation iPad went from a 9.7-inch to 10.2-inch display and gained full-sized Smart Keyboard support
- March 2020: Fourth-generation iPad Pro gained a LiDAR Scanner for AR
- September 2020: Fourth-generation iPad Air redesigned to look like iPad Pro
Looking ahead, rumors suggest that Apple plans to release a new iPad Pro with a Mini-LED display, support for faster 5G networks, and a faster A14X chip in the first half of 2021. A larger 8.4-inch iPad mini and a new 10.2-inch iPad with slimmer bezels like the third-generation iPad Air are also rumored to launch this year.
