Apple iPad S vs Motorola Xoom - Qualcomm Doubles the Fun

It is a far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.

Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has had an exciting 2010. First, of relevance to techies, Apple has now moved from being the number five (5) computer maker in the world to the number three (3) in the world behind only Hewlett-Packard and Acer in terms of Global Unit Share.

Apple leapt over Asus, Lenovo, Toshiba and Dell as stated in the article “iPad pushes Apple into the top mobile ranks”, published August 2, 2010 9:20 PM PDT by Brooke Crothers, CNET News - The Circuits Blog () and confirmed by the article “Apple: We're No. 3, We're No. 3!”, published August 3, 2010 10:20am by Eric Benderoff, Appolocious, Yahoo! News.

Apple also earned US$20 billion this fourth Quarter of December 2010 as stated in the article “Apple: More revenue in one quarter than Google will do in a year”, published October 18, 2010, 1:48pm PDT By Sam Diaz, Between the Lines - ZDNET, beating market expectations for Microsoft, its main rival. They also and thoroughly trounced Google, who pundits on Wall Street are betting on garnering US$21.6 billion for ALL of 2010. Clearly, the Apple Cart is loaded with Apples reaped from the Orchard!

Thus another sick leave by Apple CEO Steve Jobs is nothing to worry about, as it may be merely a sign of his company’s success and his superstardom being a bit too much to handle as stated in the article “Apple CEO Steve Jobs to medical leave again”, published January 17, 2011 6:26 AM PST by Jonathan E. Skillings and Erica Ogg, CNET News.

However, as much as the media hawks are already speculating about succession, as if it Apple CEO Steve Jobs health issues were not supposed to be private or they are expecting him to, as the Americans say, kick the bucket, Apple has bigger worries in the form of the Motorola Xoom.

This is where this blog will “occur” its media spotlight – or flashlight as in my case – as albeit we wish for Apple CEO Steve Jobs swift recovery, tit-bit details of his health are not concern enough that it should cause stock prices to drop as stated in the article “Apple share price drops on Jobs health fears”, published Tuesday January 18 2011, by AFP, Yahoo! News.

This, folks, is the smashingly good and spanking straight-out-of-the-plastic standard of what Google Android 2.4 aka Honeycomb can bring to bear against the Apple iPad and the iOS ecosystem in the Tablet Wars. From my critical blog article entitled “Motorola Xoom and Honeycomb - Tablet Evolution in Stormy Weather”, it should be apparent that aside from packing a barometer and a Dual-Core Tegra Processor, first for ANY Tablet, it has some SERIOUS hardware specs on this CES (Computer Electronics Show) 2011 christened device.

This means that speculation as to the Apple iPad S and its hardware being “two of everything”, software and power requirements may be spot on as enunciated in my blog article entitled “Apple and the iPad 2 - Honeycomb, Chrome and the DragonSlayer”. I sound the chime of confidence as evidence has now emerged to indicate that this “two of everything” theme is resplendent in the Apple iPad S’ design – credit to CNET  Writer/blogger Erica Ogg. Two (2) out of two (2) – she is on a roll!

EnGadget recently posted a report confirming a possible shift by Apple away from Infineon, the maker of their communication SOC (System on a Chip) chips used in the Apple iPad and the Apple iPhone to Qualcomm, which is offering Apple a dual-mode chipset that can decode both GSM (Global System Mobile) and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) as stated in the article “Report: Future iPad, iPhone to have Qualcomm chips”, published January 14, 2011 5:20 PM PST by Erica Ogg, CNET News.

Albeit I have no official news to confirm this (apologies to all the trolls at EnGadget!), Qualcomm does make Dual-mode 3G and 4G chipsets i.e. chipsets that can work on 3G standards such as HSDPA+ (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) and LTE (Long Term Evolution) a 4G Standard as stated in the article “Qualcomm readies 3G/4G mobile chipsets”, published November 12, 2009 4:07 PM PST by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News - Signal Strength.

Please note this is Dual-mode for GSMA (Global System Mobile Alliance) standards, as personally I was looking for support for WiMaX 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.16d, e) as well. But as these chips were in production since 2009 and now integrated on the circuit boards of smartphones by handset makes such as Huawei Technologies, LG Electronics Novatel Wireless, Sierra Wireless, and ZTE Corp of china, Apple joining the party is not surprising, as they do have a habit of signing on to technologies that are proven over time.

Hopefully, these rumours all so well documented on my blog will be more than a flash in a pan mirroring the wishes and desire of the future, as another innovation popping up at CES 2011 and worth noting, is the absence of the Home Button on Tablets as stated in the article  “Tablet makers phasing out the ‘home key’”, published Thursday January 13, 2011 9:34 am ET By Ben Patterson, Yahoo! News.

But this is definitely in keeping with the Apple iPad and Apple iPhone being made world ready as speculated by CNET Writer/blogger Erica Ogg in her previous article on the subject entitled “iPad 2.0: New Design, manufacturing process?”, published November 19, 2010 11:17 AM PST by Erica Ogg, CNET News - Circuit Breaker and confirmed by the article Report says Apple iPad 2 to have 2 Cameras, USB port”, published Friday November 26, 2010 11:43 am ET by Dan Nystedt, Yahoo! News.

February launch of the Apple iPad S as speculated in the article “Report: iPad 2 to ship next February”, published ,  Tuesday December 7, 2010 by Steven Musil, Apple - CNET News, six hundred thousand (600,000) of the White Unicorn 2 strong, is just too far away……