Rumor has it the device will be called iPad HD, sport a high-definition screen, and be LTE-capable. There’s a good chance a new Apple TV (the set-top box, not a television) will also be in the spotlight. And of course, there is probably something Apple has up its sleeve that hasn’t leaked out yet, so be sure to join us to see the action unfolds.

We will be live blogging the event starting at 10 a.m. but will kick things off below at around 9:30 a.m. PT, so please bookmark this page and come back then.

(Note: We’re going to traditional blog updates due to CIL problems)

10:12 am: Photostream is now part of Apple TV. Photos you take on iPhone appear on your Apple TV now, says Eddy Cue, who demos this for us.

10:13 am: You can also see every movie you’ve every bought via iCloud. You can rewatch without paying again.

10:15 am: That’s it for Cue. Cook is back. He says the new version is available next week for $99.

10:16 am iPad is the poster child of the post-PC world, he says. The momentum is “incredible” and has surprised everyone. We sold more iPads in Q4 than any PC maker sold PCs in the same time frame.

10:18 am: When they created the iPad, Cook says it was intended to be a new category. To do that, it had to be the best for normal tasks, like web browsing, email, etc.

10:20 am: He’s talking about apps and games, gives a shout out to StockTouch (which I wrote about yesterday) as perfect apps for the tablet.

10:21 am: Cook is showing us what Twitter app looks like on a Samsung tablet. “It looks like a blown up smartphone app.” He does the same thing with Yelp on the Samsung tablet. “It’s stretched out” and “hard to see.”

10:22 am: This is why competitive tablets aren’t gaining traction, he says. “Everyone is wondering who will come out with a product more amazing than an iPad 2″ he says. “Stop wondering. We are.” The new iPad is here, he says, without giving it a name yet.

10:23: Phil Schiller is up to show it to us. It has a Retina Display. “You might have heard,” he says.

10:26 am: He’s talking about how they’ve packed the display pixels tightly and how they call it “Retina.” There are 4x the  number of pixels on the new iPad (is that what they’re calling it? No sign of iPad HD or iPad 3 moniker yet.)

10:27 am: Also an A5X chip for quad-core graphics is inside.

10:28 am: “The best mobile display that’s ever shipped,” Schiller claims. The second feature is an iSight camera on the iPad.

10:29 am Camera has 5 megapixel sensor, backside illumination, hybrid IR filter in the camera. He’s showing us pics taken with the iPad. Has automatic face detection and auto focus lock.

10:30 am: HD video recording at 1080p resolution for the backside camera. He demonstrates a home movie taken with it, including how the image stabilization works.
10:31 am: There’s also voice dictation software. You can hit a button and start talking and the iPad will write an email for you.

10:33 am: It’ll have 4G, which elicits a lot of cheers. iPad will have HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA and LTE. “Performance will be amazing,” he says.

10:34 am: He’s showing how fast photos load on 4G. And for videos, he’s showing how they’ll download and load faster on 4G versus over 3G.

10:36 am: AT&T, Verizon, Rogers, Bell and Telus will be the first 4G carrier partners. Two versions in U.S., one for LTE bands on AT&T and another on Verizon’s band because they’re different. But they’ll work on any 3G network, he notes. It can also be a hotspot for 5 devices — provided your carrier is cool with it.

10:39 am: It has the most wireless bands of any device that’s ever shipped, Schiller says. So what does that mean for power consumption? iPad will have 10 hours of battery life, he says, on 3G, but 9 hours on 4G. Same as what iPad 2 did on 3G.

It comes in black and white, starts at $499, just like previous versions for 16Gb. 32GB will be $599 and 64GB will be $699. Available March 16. Preorders start today.

10:41 am: On software: Safari has been upgraded, so has Mail app and Photo app for Retina display resolution. Now he’s going to talk about what this means for developers: Apps will look and perform fine, but developers  can improve their apps to look better. And now starts the stream of developers talking about their app. First up is James Shelton from Namco to talk about Sky Gamblers Air Supremacy.

10:44 am: Next up is Autodesk to talk about Sketchbook Ink on iPad. A new drawing app for line art, complimentary to their Sketchbook Pro app.

10: 48 am: Says images up to 100 megapixels can be exported from the app. The Retina Display “takes it to the next level,” says Autodesk’s on-stage rep.

10: 49: He says it’s available starting in April. Next up for the third (and last, Schiller promises) is Epic Games. Mike Capps, Epic’s president, will show us a new project.

10:51 am: He’s showing us their Infinity Blade Dungeons game.

10:53 am: Capps puts in a plug that the iPad has higher screen resolution than Xbox 360.

10: 54 am: Schiller is back to talk about Apple’s own software, iWork. They’re getting updated for the new iPad.

They’re getting updated for the new iPad. It’s a free upgrade if you’ve already purchased them. iLife is also being updated, including some new features of Garage Band. Something called Jam Session, four people playing at the same time can collaborate on the same song. It’s a free updated and also available today.

10:59 am: Now we’re getting a look at the new iMovie app for iPad. It’s $4.99 and available today. iPhoto is also coming to iPad today. Use your same photo library on your iPad, but is better for browsing, has multitouch editing, new effects and brushes. You can use photo beaming to send photos between your iOS devices.

11″03 am: Randy Ubillos from Apple is talking about the new photo app. He’s showing how you can do editing on the iPad.

11:08 am: Shows how you can crop and rotate, adjust shadows, highlights and contrast, all with touch. There are a series of “brushes” which are actually your finger to fix the image in a couple of different ways.

11: 13 am: He’s showing us a pretty cool photo journal feature that lets you layout a travel journal really easily. You can add text or notes next to your photos, calendar elements, maps with the photo’s location, weather icons etc. You can share it via a link or via iCloud. And all of this can be down on an iPhone too, he says. iPhoto is $4.99 starting today.

11:14 am: Schiller is back and notes that all iWork and iLife are on the iPad now. “Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t create on an iPad.” And now there’s the obligatory product marketing video for iPad.

11:19 am: Video’s done. Schiller’s back. “This will chagne what people think is possible with this category fo device.” Along with the new iPad, iPad 2 will hang around starting at $399 for 16GB. “So many more people can afford to get into this” he says, specifically calling out schools.  The iPad 2 will be $529 if you want 3G.

11:22: Cook is back. “We have redefined the category Apple created just two years ago, ” he says. And now we’re going to watch another ad.

11:23: The iPad is the ultimate poster child of the post-PC world, he says. Cook thanks Apple employees and “everyone who supports Apple.”

“Across the year you’re going to see a lot more of this kind of innovation. We’re just getting started,” he says. And that’s it. Cook exits the stage.

11:24 am: And that’s it for us too. Thanks everyone for hanging with us despite our technical difficulties. Stay tuned for lots more coverage from GigaOM today.

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Notably, this dominance of the field has continued even as Amazon and Barnes & Noble, as well as a handful of other companies, have poured into this market to sell tablets. Still, none have been able to dislodge Apple’s tight grip on consumers’ demonstrated preference here. And CEO Tim Cook basically dismissed Amazon and its Kindle Fire (and others) as true competitors. Here’s what Cook said on Tuesday during the earnings call for one of the company’s best quarters ever:

I think people really want to do multiple things with their tablets, so we don’t see limited-function tablets and e-readers as being in the same category. They’ll sell a fair number of units but people who want an iPad won’t settle for limited function.

Last year was supposed to be the year of the tablet … but most people would agree it was the year of the iPad, for the second year in a row. And we’re going to continue to innovate like crazy.

Data from Pew Research found that during December that both e-readers and tablet ownership nearly doubled, so clearly some people want e-readers. And sales estimates indicate Amazon, whose Kindle Fire is significantly cheaper than the iPad, may have sold around 5 million Kindle Fires between October and December 2011.

Not only is Apple’s tablet outselling all other competitors in its market, it’s taking down devices outside tablets too. On the call, Cook also noted that per NPD data, the iPad outsold desktop PCs last quarter. He also repeated, as he has for the past few quarters, that he does see the iPad taking away sales that would otherwise go to Macs as well. And he’s OK with that:

There is cannibalization of the Mac by the iPad but we continue to believe there is much more cannibalization of Windows PCs by the iPad. We love that trend, we think it’s great for us.

With growth among consumers, education (Apple sold 1.5 million iPads to schools last year, which was more than the number of Macs sold to schools), airlines, healthcare companies and a growing list of large enterprise companies in almost every field, Apple has very clearly covered its bases early, making it hard for competitors to beat it in any particular target market.

So can anyone loosen Apple’s grip on tablets? The company’s momentum here doesn’t look like it’s about to diminish any time soon. And let’s not forget it’s very likely that a new iPad model is just around the corner.

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Proview is a manufacturer of flatscreens which unsuccessfully launched a tablet called IPAD in 2000, registering the trademark in many countries around the world. In 2006, Proview Electronics, which shares a parent company with Proview Technology, sold Apple use of the IPAD name, but whether or not that deal included China is debated by the two companies.

Apple’s applied for ownership of two Chinese trademarks related to the iPad name (“iPAD” and “IPAD”), made prior to its introduction of the iPad for sale to Chinese consumers. But that application was rejected by the trademark office because they were listed as owned by Proview Technology, not Proview Electronics, which brokered the original sale.

Apple sued Proview Technology, seeking the court’s recognition that it is in fact the owner of the patents, but said suit was rejected by the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court on Tuesday. In a statement, the court said any claims Apple had secured on the trademark only applied to Proview’s Taiwan subsidiary, not the Shenzen-based Proview Technology.

Apple can still appeal the decision, but in the meantime, it faces suits from Proview Technology that seek to ban the sale of iPads in Shenzhen and Huizhou, two cities in southern China. Proview is seeking injunctions in those two cities first, with the intent of pursuing similar blocks country-wide should those rulings go in its favor. The hearing for the Shenzhen case begins on Dec. 30.

Obviously, having its case to gain ownership of the trademarks thrown out isn’t good news for Apple, but winning there was only the best-possible outcome for the iPhone-maker, and losing is by no means the end of the world. Proview is admittedly threatening its business in a key market, and seeking $1.5 billion in compensation from Chinese courts for copyright infringement. But we’ll likely never see either a banning of the iPad in any Chinese city, or a payday quite so large.

Proview is an admittedly struggling company, according to reports. It’s in this for a payout, but to fight Apple in the long haul isn’t a practical solution for the small-time component maker. Speaking to the Financial Times, Proview representative Li Su basically admitted as much, noting the company hopes the court’s rejection of Apple’s claim on the trademark makes its “negotiations with Apple a little easier.”

We’ll have to wait and see how this shakes out, but it’s probably going to take the form of a settlement for a sum somewhere far south of the $1.5 billion Proview is seeking in damages, since Apple likely wants this to go away as quickly as possible so it can continue its impressive success with the iPad in China without distraction.

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Moskowitz is mostly reiterating what he heard from Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer in a recent sit-down with them, during which they discussed the Kindle Fire’s role in relation to the iPad. Moskowitz came away with the clear impression that “Apple is not seeing much pressure from lower-priced tablets” and that current Kindle Fire buyers “could gravitate to more feature-rich experiences” down the road based on their initial use of the cheaper Amazon device.

J.P. Morgan and Apple execs apparently aren’t all that concerned over Amazon’s new Android tablet, which is already projected to beat the sales of all other tablets based on the Google mobile platform by the end of this quarter. And it’s true that the Kindle Fire could act as a sort of gateway drug, turning users on to the tablet experience but leaving them craving features missing from the Amazon device, like a full-fledged market of applications targeted to large-screen devices, a larger screen itself and cellular data access.

It’s an admittedly rosy outlook from a source with a vested interest in seeing this outcome come to pass, however. There is another obvious possibility to contend with too: Users could find that the Kindle Fire provides everything they really need in a tablet experience (web browsing, media playback) for an acceptable price and might not look further. Whether or not those users would have looked at iPads otherwise or whether another, significant portion of Fire owners might not find themselves wanting more is another question.

I think Apple’s optimistic outlook should pan out, however, as long as one thing remains true: tablets continue to encroach upon and replace PCs as primary computing devices for general users. In that case, the Kindle Fire and the iPad likely will enter into a mutually beneficial orbit, with the cheaper device’s drawing in first-time tablet users and the iPad’s acting as a sort of graduation gift for when they opt to use tablets as their main computers.

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An Apple store in China

A new Morgan Stanley survey (via AppleInsider) found that Apple is the most desirable brand of computer in China right now, beating out local heavyweight Lenovo. China became the biggest buyer of personal computers as of August, according to IDC, so that’s great news for Apple.

The Morgan Stanley survey of over 1,500 respondents spread across 16 Chinese cities found that Apple was picked as the brand of choice for people’s next computer purchase 21 percent of the time. That compares with just five percent who currently own an Apple computer. Lenovo still remains the top choice for consumers’ next purchase, but it dropped from 31 to 23 percent. If laptops are considered alone, Apple exceeds Lenovo as the next purchase of choice, with 22 percent of respondents choosing Cupertino’s products over Lenovo’s 21 percent.

Aside from being high on consumer t0-buy lists, Apple also ranked as the most desirable PC brand, according to the survey. It achieved a weighted score of 66 percent, with Asus in second at a close 65 percent.

The main barrier to Apple computers for most respondents was price; only 7 percent of survey respondents said that they would be willing to spend north of $1,000 for a computer, which is where the bulk of Apple’s line lies. Luckily, the trend is changing; of those planning to buy a new computer, half plan to do so within two years and expect to spend 6 percent more than the roughly $700 average price currently paid. If Apple can lower or keep prices the same as Chinese customers grow more affluent and continue to expect to pay more, eventually cost won’t be nearly the barrier it is today.

The iPad is also walking away with the tablet market in China, just as it is elsewhere. Sixty-eight percent of respondents plan to make it their next tablet purchase, while 65 percent of tablet owners currently have one. The iPhone is also poised to do very well, with 40 percent of respondents saying it will be their next device, more than four and a half times the number of current iPhone users as polled.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said that China was now Apple’s second-largest market, and judging by these numbers, it won’t be too long before it climbs to the top spot.

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It’s understandable that analysts would predict a similar sort of trajectory for the iPad that the iPhone has experienced; after all, a tablet is just a larger smartphone, and both categories of devices run basically the same mobile operating systems, at least as far as iOS and Android are concerned.

The only proven tablet OS

But the experience on both Android and iOS tablets for end users isn’t nearly the same as the experience on phones using both platforms. If Android feels a bit immature on smartphone hardware, it feels exceedingly so on tablet devices. IOS, on the other hand, feels tailor-made for each. Nothing about it seems hasty, or an attempt to quickly gain a foothold in a market the OS was shoehorned into in the first place, the way Honeycomb did. Ice Cream Sandwich could improve the situation, but at most, it will probably be an evolutionary update, if the history of Android OS iteration is any example.

In other words, Android has yet to prove it can even deliver a mature, feature-complete tablet OS designed to take advantage of larger-screened devices. That Gold suggests in his note that QNX and Microsoft will be able to each acquire 10 percent of the tablet market by 2015 is an even greater reach, since those platforms have even more to prove in terms of market relevance. RIM can’t even get email working on its platform until 2012, and Microsoft’s software is a risky desktop/mobile hybrid that has yet to see a public release. Predicting either’s ascendancy at this point to a solid but distant third is like seeing Zune and anticipating it would eventually be a serious contender alongside the iPod.

Distribution model differences

Predicting the iPad vs Android tablets market to proceed along the same lines of the iPhone vs. Android phones market also discounts key differences in the distribution model of both devices. Tablets, despite some support from carriers for 3G data plans, stand in for computers more than phones for most consumers, and that’s the way many people shop for them, too.

Carriers, then, don’t have nearly as much say in which devices get pushed as they do with smartphones. In the past (and still today), if you wanted an iPhone, in many markets you were stuck with one or two carriers. If you wanted network choice, you had to go to a different device. Also, carriers have tended to favor Android because it offers them more customization options, allowing them greater controller over the customer relationship.

So long as the tablet isn’t inextricably tied to distribution through network operators, Apple will have an advantage, since it has the strongest marketing, sales and retail network of any device OEM.

Usage still far ahead

As we reported yesterday, Apple’s iOS market share by usage is still well ahead of Android or any other competitor, as measured by website access by platform and by browser. Those numbers combine both tablet and smartphone figures, but since Android is acknowledged to be faring much better versus iOS in smartphones than in tablets, it stands to reason that the iPad is skewing things heavily in Apple’s favor.

We sometimes see reports that claim Apple is losing ground, but more often than not, those numbers reflect shipments, not actual sales to consumers, as Kevin Tofel pointed out. Many of the Android devices reported as shipped are likely sitting on store shelves, whereas Apple’s numbers represent devices actively being used by consumers.

Determining the actual gap here is made even more difficult when you consider that new Android tablets are constantly coming to market. Combine old stock with new, throw in a glut of essentially obsolete devices in the form of the discontinued HP TouchPad, which could be had for just $99 during the last couple of months, and you get even more of a statistical minefield that probably doesn’t represent long-term trends in any accurate way.

Apple is best positioned to innovate

The iPad has a huge lead in its current form, and Apple has lots of money to spend on R&D, which makes it the best-positioned tablet-maker to introduce category-innovating new form factors, features and technologies. The competition can try to shake things up, too, and have done so with different sizes, detachable laptop docks, etc., but if the groundwork isn’t laid, these variations on Apple’s successful model have little chance of succeeding.

Predictions that draw parallels between the smartphone realm and the tablet market are missing the point; the real future makeup of the tablet landscape will be drawn by unconventional attacks like Amazon’s $199 Kindle Fire, which counts not on mimicking Apple’s success, but on consumer willingness to sacrifice on features in order to get a low-cost, content consumption device.

Even so, I think the iPad will weather these and other assaults and continue to reign beyond the 2015 mark, for the reasons outlined above and my past arguments about why Apple’s tablet is still more appealing than the Amazon offering.

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The Levitatr is an iPad Bluetooth keyboard with a magic trick up its sleeve: The actual keys emerge from a smooth surface at the press of a button, magically appearing when you’re ready to type. Activating the keys also activates backlighting, which will be a bright LED white in the final shipping version. Check out a prototype in action:

In black and aluminum, the Levitatr looks good either at rest or when its keys are out and ready to play, but that’s not the only advantage of its unique function. Levitatr designer James Stumpf explains that hiding keys away makes them less prone to getting gummed up with dirt and grime, and it prevents accidental keystrokes should it be jostled around in your bag, extending battery life.

Speaking of batteries, that might be the only real downside to the Levitatr: It requires four AAA batteries to run for an undisclosed amount of time. The absence of an internal battery may be annoying, but at least it will save you some charging time when you run low on power.

An integrated kickstand will support your iPad (or other Bluetooth-enabled mobile device), and five dedicated function keys are mapped to iPad-specific commands, like the Home button.

As a slim, low-profile Bluetooth keyboard with a very unique feature, the Levitatr stands a good chance of competing with the likes of Logitech’s impressive keyboard case and Apple’s own offering, but it still has to meet its rather lofty funding target of $60,000. Offering Levitatr preorders for backers starting at the $79 level, which undercuts the Logitech offering by $20, just might help it reach that goal.

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Friday’s decision, which is the final result of that last hearing, means Samsung is out of options for fast-tracking a reversal with the Düsseldorf Regional Court. Samsung could still appeal to the Higher Regional Court, which might potentially result in a fast-track proceeding that lifts the injunction in as little as a couple of months. But if it doesn’t do that, or if its appeal is rejected by that court, the injunction will apply until the full lawsuit proceeds in front of the Regional Court. That means Samsung could be looking at about a year of not being able to sell the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and possibly more if decisions from the main proceeding agree with the preliminary injunction, making it permanent.

Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents also says that the way the Düsseldorf court judge worded the court’s decision might suggest the injunction could be extended to cover “any new products in Germany that infringe the successfully-enforced [sic] Community design for as long as the injunction is in force.” A Community design is an intellectual property protection for the outward appearance of a product or part of it. That means recently unveiled devices like the Galaxy Tab 7.7, which was recently removed from the IFA show floor in Berlin because of patent issues, could be affected, too, while the original 7-inch Galaxy Tab can continue to be sold.

While the injunction still only applies to Samsung in Germany, Mueller says the Community design, which is the basis of the patent suit, has far-reaching implications if upheld. If it remains in force, Apple will be able to fairly easily get similar injunctions against similar products; in theory, few tablets would be safe. Closing off the entire German market from tablet competitors would likely affect the decision of electronics companies to even make one at all, especially if Apple can win similar victories in its ongoing cases in other international markets.

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TechCrunch’s early look on Friday of a pre-release model tells us the Amazon tablet will be a 7-inch color touchscreen tablet running a non-tablet version of Android on a single-core chip, with very little local storage. It will probably cost $250 and be Wi-Fi only to start, and it’s going to be called the Amazon Kindle. The name implies Amazon is not selling it as a tablet, but more as an e-reader that does much, much more. That makes it sound less like an iPad and more like the Barnes & Noble Nook Color. That’s the first of many ways that the two differ in their approach.

The cores of their businesses are also fundamentally different. Apple is a hardware company. The iTunes Store and App Store do well and they are important parts of  its business, but the purpose of the hardware isn’t just a pretty and pricey vehicle to sell music, videos, games, apps and software. The videos and apps are there to enable people to enjoy their iPod, iPhone or iPad. Amazon is an e-commerce company. They sell books, makeup, jewelry, electronics, etc. And, of course, lots and lots of e-books. That’s why Amazon sells the Kindle: principally as a way to sell more e-books.

Amazon also sells $79-per-year subscriptions in Amazon Prime that lets you get all the stuff you buy from them really fast for one low shipping price paid up front. Amazon’s forthcoming tablet is said to be integrated with Amazon services (think Amazon’s MP3 store, Cloud Drive and video-on-demand) you’re signed up for and, very significantly, free access to Prime. As Morgan Stanley says in a research note Tuesday, the latter is the key factor in what will make this tablet successful for Amazon:

The Tablet will accelerate customer adoption of Amazon’s Prime offering through potentially pairing the service with Tablet purchases. We estimate Prime customers annually spend 4-5x the amount of non-Prime customers and that global Prime customers total ~12MM of which ~7-8MM reside in the US (144MM total active users). Between new accounts and current, non-Prime accounts upgrading to Prime, net sales per active account has plenty of room to grow.

The idea of Amazon giving away free Prime subscriptions isn’t just a gimmick to get people to buy hardware. It’s one of the reasons they’re selling the hardware in the first place, since people buy more things when it’s easier for them. And people who have Prime, according to Morgan Stanley, buy more things from Amazon than those who don’t have Prime.

So those who use Amazon Prime or have accumulated music, videos, and are users of other Amazon services are going to be very excited by a new Amazon Kindle. The new Kindle is attractive in that it’s an e-reader that also does other stuff, whereas the iPad is positioned more as a general device.

In terms of specs, Amazon is apparently not attempting to build a technically superior tablet to the iPad. (A good move, since we’ve seen how well faster, more robust tablets with “access to the full web” have done versus the iPad.) Again, Amazon’s business is selling stuff.

The two are different devices, and the Amazon tablet is clearly not designed as an “iPad killer.” And whether or not Amazon can catch up to Apple’s 24 million iPads sold in 15 months, isn’t the right rubric for whether it’s been successful for Amazon.

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Refurbished Apple devices come with a one-year warranty, plus a new battery and outer casing. The only real difference is that they usually ship in unmarked boxes instead of the usual packaging supplied with new hardware. Until Wednesday, Apple only offered original iPad models as refurb devices. Now you can get 32 GB and 64 GB Wi-Fi + 3G iPad 2 models for all carriers, as well as 64 GB Wi-Fi only units for $50 less than the original sticker price of each.

Hey, it may not be a $99 HP TouchPad, but it’s a way better deal than the fast one HTC is trying to pull with the $699 on-contract pricing for its upcoming HTC Jetstream. With all Apple refurbished products, quantities are limited, and available stock changes with frequently, so if you see something you like, go ahead and grab it.

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