Apple chief Steve Jobs gets off his sick bed, 'didn't want to miss' launch of iPad2

IT’S faster, thinner and lighter. It can even take photos. But Apple’s second tablet won’t be available in Australia for weeks.

IPad2

AILING Apple CEO Steve Jobs defied expectations to launch the company's long-rumoured iPad2 today.

Jobs launched the second version of the tablet that started the million-selling trend yesterday, making a surprise comeback from medical leave to reveal the gadget.

"We've been working on this product for a while and I didn't want to miss it,'' he told the audience.

The iPad 2 comes with a host of significant, if incremental, upgrades in addition to a serious slim-down.

The biggest addition comes in the form of two cameras: a camera on the back of the tablet and a small camera on its face for Facetime video calls.

The second iPad also promises to perform faster, boosted by a dual-core Apple A5 processor that Jobs promised to deliver twice the processing speed and nine times the graphical power, helping it keep pace with fresh rivals from Motorola, Samsung and BlackBerry.

It also comes in black and white.

"Everybody's got a tablet,'' Jobs said.

"Most of these tablets aren't even catching up without the first iPad.

"But we haven't been resting on our laurels.''

Regular tablet users will also be pleased to learn the new iPad is now one-third thinner (8.8mm), includes magnets for use with a new series of Smart Covers, maintains its 10-hour battery life and will retain the price of current iPads.

But iPad 2 will not ship immediately. Australians will have to wait until the end of the month, March 25, for the iPad to reach stores.

It will launch in the United States on March 11.

Apple’s second tablet comes 11 months after the US launch of its first tablet that sold more than 14.8 million units last year and sparked a new popular personal technology category.

Research firm Gartner predicted tablet sales would soar to 64.78 million worldwide this year, providing serious competition to netbook and notebook computers.

The trend will also be strong in Australia, according to Telsyte research director Foad Fadaghi, who forecasted more than one million tablets to be sold in Australia by the end of the year, including 900,000 Apple iPads.

Despite giving a performance Apple investors and fans will applaud, Jobs still appeared gaunt and thin on stage.

He went on medical leave in January for an undisclosed condition and there had been concerns that his cancer had come back in an aggressive form.

Apple shares were up less than one percent to $351.54 after the announcement, despite briefly spiking higher when Jobs stepped on stage.

The 56-year old was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004 and underwent a liver transplant in June 2008.