Apple's recent unveiling of the iPad was primarily a product announcement aimed at priming the pump for consumers, developers and content owners. But for the notoriously secretive company, the iPad event provided observers with a glimpse of the company's growing ambitions and strategies. By trumpeting its own chipset for the iPad, passing on Adobe Flash software and putting even more emphasis on its iTunes system, Apple appears intent on tightening its command over the user experience and delivering a distinct vision of mobile computing, Internet connectivity and media consumption. But perhaps the most obvious upshot of the latest unveiling was Apple's continued recognition that its future, unlike its origin, is tied to mobile devices. Three years after dropping the word "computer" from its name, Apple's CEO Steve Jobs said the company's annual revenue of $50 billion from iPhones, iPods and MacBook laptops make it the largest maker of mobile devices in the world.
