focusing on the fact that it's a "coined phrase". Ignore that
At this point, I'll agree with you. We're saying the same thing. Let's ignore facts and pretend what Steve says is the ultimate truth. That is the reality distortion field.
(and again, I'm not saying 1000 units is "shipping in volume". Read this slowly :
- manufacturer does limited run to fill select partner orders/pre-orders. Uses this time to build inventory and ramp up production. Sends these few units out (which could be 100, 1000, 1,000,000 units). This isn't shipping in volume, no matter the unit count. They are doing limited shipping. Availability is limited to these select partners. Think of it as Apple doing a launch of iPad 2 on March 7th to Best Buy and their own retail stores only with each store receiving a maximum of 10 units.
- 2 weeks later, manufacturer has enough inventory, opens up shipping to any one who places an order and orders go out from inventory while manufacturing replenishes this inventory fast enough for it to not run out and cause a "back order". This is now called "shipping in volume" as far as the coined term goes. Orders are filled and manufacturer doesn't fall behind on production.)
As far as we're concerned, February 24th is the day the Xoom started "Shipping in Volume".
Now, if you Ignore all of this and just redefine "Shipping in Volume" to mean whatever Steve wanted it to mean, yes, in fact iPad 2 will be the first tablet ever to do "something Steve completely and subjectively made up" with a Dual core processor.
I should really stop posting and arguing when I first say I do...
Toshiba shipped a dual core tablet in 2005 or 2006. Anyone here consider that a volume shipment?
I actually saw one... emphasis on the "one".
If you want to get that technical, HP has been shipping dual core tablets since 2008. The Touchsmart series. But lets at least pretend to stick to the new "mobile device tablet" subset and let's ignore the "PC Tablet" superset.