One of the unannounced new features of the update to Apple’s operating system, iOS5.1 is that it discreetly raises the limit for iTunes downloads via the phone network from 20MB to 50MB – allowing for apps that cater to iPad’s new Retina screen.
Just 20 such downloads could eat up the full capacity of many data plans. Tech site Tecca warns, ‘Combine the realities of multimedia file size and a blazing fast connection that allows transfer of said files at unprecedented speeds, and you have a recipe for potentially expensive disaster.’
Apple was forced to push back its original late April UK launch date because of ‘overwhelming demand’ for the device in the U.S.
The company sold more than one million iPads in the U.S. in the first 100 days making it a better seller than the iPhone.
Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst for Forrester Research, said the device’s Android competition has failed because most technology companies fail to see that the ‘apps’ are more important than the hardware.
‘It’s about the services – what you can do with the device,’ she said in a blog post.
Apple’s competitors have slowly come to realize this, but only after bringing out dozens of tablets with whiz-bang features like 3-D cameras.