HDR Photos and Facetime on the new iPad with iOS 4.2

Transscript and interpretation of the Apple Special Event, Sep. 1. 2010

Steve Jobs has disclosed - willing or unwillingly - an interesting new feature on future iPads:
HDR Photos on the iPad with iOS 4.2 due in November.

HDR [High dynamic range] photos has been demonstrated as a new feature of  iOS4.1.
The iPhone  and the newly released iPod Touch 4th generation with Cameras (both front and back) can take multiple exposures of a scene and auto-correct using HDR blending.
Effectively HDR is a method of dealing with the "low dynamic range" problem of displays, printers and paper.
Again Apple is setting a trend that everybody will follow: Expect Auto-HDR processing soon in consumer-cameras all over the place.

Steve Jobs has againg delivered one of  his legendary high profile product presentations in San Francisco, however he seemed a bit unconcentrated this time. He made several small errors (like calling shuffle a nano), so it is speculation, if it was an unwanted error or rather an inadvertent disclosure of future iPad product specs when he said the following during the iOS 4.2 Sneak Peak Demo:
--- Beginning of quote
"I have got a little surprise for you today: It´s a sneak peak at the next iOS release 4.2. 4.2 is coming a little later this year and it is all about iPad. It is bringing everything to iPad. All from iOS 4.1 with it´s multitasking, it´s folders, game center, HDR photos, everything you saw here, everything to iPad. Wireless printing, we are adding wireless printing to iOS and we are adding something really cool which is called "Airplay"....]
----End of quote

Now how can "HDR Photos" live, exist, function on an iPad. Well, once taken and processed an HDR Photo is just a photo. There is only one way this statement makes any sense:
The new iPad is going to have camera lenses built in! It will likely be available together with the iOS 4.2 release release in November.
Speculating further, it is extremely likely that the iPad has a front facing camera as well. This will make it a Facetime device, which is critical as Facetime is still a proprietary "on-Net" feature. If you happen to own an iPhone4 you will have noticed that there are just not enough iPhone4 users out there yet to really take advantage of Facetime. This will and has to change.
Facetime will continue to be an "Apple - World" network-feature, perfectly designed to work as a viral marketing scheme. It works between iMacs, Iphone4s (NOW ipod Touches) and SOON iPADs. That will be it.

This way Apple positions itself again successfully at the forefront of consumer electronics innovation. This very week (beginning of September) the IFA Consumer Electronics Show in Berlin [practically the german equivalent of the CES] demonstrates a massive lineup of  "iPad Killers" or rather "wanna-be´s". Android is a challenge, no doubt - and Samsung is most aggressive with tabled PC offerings.
However if you look closer at hybrid TV´s, internet connected TVs, different Tivo-like STB concepts and compare that to the clear statements that Steve Jobs has made regarding what they learned from a 4 year mediocre Apple-TV performance and acceptence you will find that Apple is again just one major step further ahead:
The new Apple TV includes a major paradigm shift: Is has no more local storage, it is no longer a syncing device, it does no longer support purchasing content on the TV.
At 99$, I predict, it will be a big hit this time and Steve will no longer call it a "hobby" next year.While the majority of players at the IFA believes in TVs and STBs with large hard disks [the "TIVO concept"], Apple now believes in a pure streaming concept for the living room.
However, Apple believes (and I agree) that People don´t want another computer in the living room, they don´t want to manage media on yet another device.
The way this streaming is made to work, the extreme ease of use and integration with other products of the familiy is again making all the difference.
Watching a show on the iPad or iPod touch, and the continuing this on the big screen TV has never been so easy and straight forward. Touching the loudness button offers a "stream this on Apple TV" option. Hitting it will instantly continue to play the media on the big screen. As simple as that.
None of any of the displayed products at IFA 2010 come anywhere close.

This is the reason why I have again upgraded the price target for Apple stock on the TREFIS DCF model:



It is now set on 327$ as a price target, which is still rather conservative.
Optimistically Apple is going to be a 500$ company within the next 36 months.
That means the best way to finance your next Apple product is simply to buy some stock. I.e. if you buy only 50 shares of Apple stock, an increase of of only 10$ USD buys you an iPad. It is that simple!.