Apple iPad

The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc. that run the iOS and iPadOS mobile operating systems. The first iPad was released on 3 April 2010; the most recent iPad models are the ninth-generation iPad, released on 24 September 2021; the sixth-generation iPad mini, released on 24 September 2021; the fourth-generation iPad Air, released on 23 October 2020; and the third-generation 11-inch (280 mm) and fifth-generation 12.9-inch (330 mm) iPad Pro, released on 21 May 2021 (different models and generations listed in the sidebar).

As of September 2020, Apple has sold more than 500 million iPads, although sales peaked in 2013. It is the most popular tablet computer by sales as of Q2 2020.

The user interface is built around the device's multi-touch screen, including a virtual keyboard. All iPads can connect via Wi-Fi; some models also have cellular connectivity. iPads can shoot video, take photos, play music and perform Internet functions such as web browsing and emailing. Other functions - games, reference, GPS navigation, social networking, etc. - can be enabled by downloading and using the iPad. - can be enabled by downloading and installing apps. As of March 2016, the App Store has more than 1 million apps for the iPad from Apple and third parties.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs said in a 1983 speech that the company's strategy was simple: "What we want to do is put an incredibly large computer in a book that you can carry around with you and learn to use in 20 minutes ... and we really want to do it with a radio link inside it so you don't have to connect to anything and you're in communication with all these big databases and other computers".

Apple's first tablet computer was the Newton MessagePad 100, introduced in 1993, powered by an ARM6 processor developed by ARM, a 1990 spinout of Acorn Computers in which Apple invested. Apple also developed a prototype tablet based on the PowerBook Duo, the PenLite, but decided not to sell it so as not to hurt MessagePad sales. Apple released several other Newton-based PDAs; the last one, the MessagePad 2100, was discontinued in 1998.

Apple re-entered the mobile computing market in 2007 with the iPhone. Smaller than the iPad, but equipped with a camera and a mobile phone, it pioneered the finger-sensitive multi-touch touchscreen interface of Apple's iOS mobile operating system. At the end of 2009, the release of the iPad had been rumoured for several years. Most of those speculations were about 'Apple's tablet'; specific names included iTablet and iSlate. The iPad was announced on 27 January 2010 by Steve Jobs at an Apple press conference at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

Jobs later said that Apple had started developing the iPad before the iPhone. Jonathan Ive had created an industrial design for a stylus-based tablet, the Macintosh Folio, as his first project for Apple in 1991; by 2004 his firm was participating in the development of a large tablet prototype, which he later described as "very crude, using projectors". Ive said that after trying to produce the tablet first, he came to agree with Jobs that the phone was more important, as the tablet's innovations would work just as well in it. The iPad's internal code name was K48, which was revealed in the court case concerning the leak of information about the iPad before its launch.