iPad 2 Live: Steve Jobs to Announce the Next-Gen Apple Tablet, the iPad 2, After All

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While some doubted Steve Jobs will take the stage at Apple’s official iPad 2 event, others suggested that will happen and I also took that second stance but was not expected him to be really the host of the event especially after the recent health reports that circled the webs.

I expected Steve Jobs to be present, since, after all, the iPad 2 is one of his baby projects but also because he would thus make an important statement: he is still well and fit to lead the company. But let’s go ahead and check out the first updates coming from Steve Jobs at the iPad event, and, naturally, we’re looking at Apple’s regular recap of the performance of its popular devices in the past year with special emphasis on the iPad’s performance:

• 15 million iPads sold in 2010 – in 9 months
• $9.5 billion in 2010
• more than 90% market share
• “competitors flummoxed”
• 100 million iPhones shipped
• $2 billion earned by apps developers
• 200 million iTunes accounts (iTunes, App Store and iBooks)
• 100 million books downloaded
• 2500 publishers in the iBookstore
• Random House joining the iBookstore and bringing 17k books

Yes, Apple is slowly making sure it gets our attention and indeed it has. Not only because it had a successful 2010, but because we want to see how the iPad 2 looks like and we’re also interested to hear more about Steve Jobs’ future with the company. So stay close by folks, as we have just started to cover the live iPad 2 event in San Francisco and we’ll have more Apple-related news for you in the following minutes.