The iPad is a tablet computer, developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the third device in the iPad line of tablets. It added a Retina Display, the new Apple A5X chip with a quad-core graphics processor, a 5-megapixel camera, HD 1080p video recording, voice dictation, and support for LTE networks in North America. It shipped with iOS 5, which provides a platform for audio-visual media, including electronic books, periodicals, films, music, computer games, presentations and web browsing.
Apple's A5X chip
Customers standing in line waiting to purchase the third-generation iPad
Critics praised the third-generation iPad's 5-megapixel camera with 1080p video recording.
A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being computers, have similar capabilities, but lack some input/output (I/O) abilities that others have. Modern tablets largely resemble modern smartphones, the only differences being that tablets are relatively larger than smartphones, with screens 7 inches (18 cm) or larger, measured diagonally, and may not support access to a cellular network. Unlike laptops, tablets usually run mobile operating systems, alongside smartphones.
Apple's iPad (left) and Amazon's Fire, two popular tablet computers, displaying the Wikipedia website
Apple Newton MessagePad, Apple's first produced tablet, released in 1993
A Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook tablet running Windows XP, released in 2003
The Nokia N800, the second tablet manufactured by Nokia