Apple has officially announced a new iPad boasting 128GB of internal storage, the most it has ever offered on an iDevice.
The 128GB model has the same specs as the fourth generation iPad that was released last October, and comes in WiFi-only or WiFi + 3G/4G connectivity.
It offers twice the storage of the previous top-end 64GB model, enabling users to hold even more photos, files, documents, apps, music, TV shows or books.
The 128GB iPad 4 will be available from 5th February in black or white, priced in the US at $799 (£639) for the WiFi model and $929 (£739) for the WiFi + cellular version. It will be sold at Apple Online Store, Apple retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.
“With more than 120 million iPads sold, it’s clear that customers around the world love their iPads, and everyday they are finding more great reasons to work, learn and play on their iPads rather than their old PCs,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing.
“With twice the storage capacity and an unparalleled selection of over 300,000 native iPad apps, enterprises, educators and artists have even more reasons to use iPad for all their business and personal needs.”
The fourth generation iPad has a 9.7-inch Retina display, Apple-designed A6X chip, FaceTime HD camera, and runs the new iOS 6.1 operating system, which rolled out last night.
Apple said that many businesses and corporations are now utilising the iPad to improve productivity, including “virtually all” of the Fortune 500 and over 85% of the Global 500 claimed to be “currently deploying or testing iPad”.
The firm feels that as people are increasingly using iPads for tasks that involve a large amount of data, such as processing 3D CAD files, X-rays, film edits, music tracks, or project blueprints, the bump in iPad storage to 128GB is needed.
However, the manner of the announcement is highly unusual for Apple, as the firm typically makes major product introductions at blockbuster launch events led by its chief executive Tim Cook.
Interestingly, though, the 128GB iPad 4 is announced just ahead of the launch of Microsoft’s new Surface Pro tablets, which run the full version of Windows 8 and have storage up to 128GB.
