iPad 2: The Winona Ryder of the Tech World Has Something to Prove

Hey … pssssst. Did you know the iPad 2 is being unveiled?

Of course you did. Because Apple’s announcement that it’s making at its press event this week is the worst-kept secret since … the Verizon iPhone announcement.

What is with Apple these days? Once shrouded in secrecy, never giving up a detail or a leak, buttoned up to the neck in terms of what it had going on underneath its ridiculously hip, belted, San Francisco-oriented trench coat, the juggernaut from Cupertino has lately been a little … loose. Free. Far from buttoned up. It’s the starlet in the studio office willing to have a casting couch “moment" to get the job, actually.

And why? Well. Some say this product launch – the first new form factor to come to market since Steve Jobs took his latest medical leave of absence, and no, the Verizon iPhone 4 reboot doesn’t count – will be scrutinized on a number of different fronts. Make no mistake, I heartily concur. One, it will be a proving ground for Tim Cook and how the company is being handled in a Jobs-less corporate universe. It’s all about company vision, and company direction.

Two, it will need to prove itself in what is becoming a crowded field. "This event is not to be taken lightly," Brian White, analyst at Ticonderoga Securities, told CNN. "Apple must make a convincing case for why the iPad 2 is better than the plethora of competitors coming to market." We are in the grip of tablet mania, people. It's just the way it is.

And three, it will need to beat … itself. More specifically, it will need to improve on the first iPad – the tablet that is destined to go down in history as the Winona Ryder of the tech world. You know, iconic, generation-defining, and looking to date hip indie rocker types. The next generation will need to improve on what seems unimproveable. It needs to be faster. Sleeker. Lighter. Cheaper (please?). You know … iPaddier. But also it will need to fix important oversights, like the lack of a camera and – dare we hope? – Flash integration. To think of it in Wi-Ry terms, it's just like Winona needed to grow from the frail waif in Lucas to the formidable 90s It Girl of Reality Bites and Girl, Interrupted.

NB: I know, I know, Flash integration probably won’t be in there, because as far as I know Apple and Adobe are still spaghetti-Westerning it out there in the outlaw land we refer to as Silicon Valley.

But my point is, iPad 2 needs to make the first iPad look like Winona in Black Swan – replaced by a beautiful new ingénue that’s not afraid to kick some rival ass, even if its herself (the Winona of Mr. Deeds? OK, this analogy is breaking down). There needs to be a point to this. It can't just be a product refresh because the calendar months have ticked by and it’s time. Apple is no longer in the enviable position of being untouchable, and spitting a new version into the market to watch it take off and sell on the basis of brand loyalty just cannot be its modus operandi any more.

It’s happening with iPhone too – at Mobile World Congress the Android army was in full mobilization mode (no pun intended). The iPhone and apps for the iPhone were two topics of much lesser significance than in years past. Still crazy popular – but Android is being seen as a quite viable alternative, thank you very much.

We’ll be covering the launch, of course, and analyzing what it means for service providers. And watch for our showcase on rival tablets and how they stack up. And please forgive me the copious Winona references. I just watched Heathers again recently – what can I say?