Apple re-entered the mobile-computing market in 2007 with the iPhone. It is smaller than the iPad and featured a camera and mobile phone . The iPhone pioneered the multitouch interface . By late 2009, the iPad's release had been rumored for several years and was referred to as "apple tablet
", iTablet or iSlate . The iPad was announced on January 27, 2010 by Steve Jobs at an Apple press conference at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.[Three days later, at the 52nd Grammy Awards, Stephen Colbert used an iPad in announcing the nominees.
Apple began taking pre-orders for the iPad from U.S. customers on March 12, 2010. The Wi-Fi version of the iPad went on sale in the United States on April 3 , 2010 . The Wi-Fi + 3G version was released on April 30. 3G service in the United States is provided by AT&T and sold with two prepaid contract-free data plan options: one for unlimited data and the other for 250 MB per month at half the price. The plans are activated on the iPad itself and can be canceled at any time.
The iPad was launched in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom on May 28. Online pre-orders in those countries began on May 10. Apple plans to release iPad
later in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore in July 2010.