LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The new iPad, set to be released this Friday, is only expected to push Apple's fortunes ever higher. Announcing its plans to kill the textbook back in January, Apple unveiled its latest version of the iPad at an event in San Francisco last week.

The iPad revealed a similar-looking tablet with a beautiful new Retina Display that boasts one million more pixels than an HDTV. "The new iPad," which is also the first Apple device to run on the high-speed 4G LTE network, starts at $499 and will begin retailing on Friday.

Apple plans to go even further. The company also announced a new Apple TV, also going on sale Friday, which promises a beautiful new user interface and videos in full 1080p HD.
 
Described as a "stock demon" in 2012, Apple is scaring all other stocks away as it continues its ascent to the very top of the market.

Apple announced its record-breaking quarter for Q1 2012 on January 24, claiming $46.33 billion overall, $13.1 billion in profit and $17.5 billion in cash for the quarter that ended Dec. 31, 2011. The final 14 weeks of 2011 proved to be the most successful in Apple's 35-year history, thanks to the release of the iPhone 4S and its voice-activated AI tool Siri, as well as the outpouring of sympathy following the death of the company's co-founder and chairman, Steve Jobs.

Apple stock closed at 552.00 a share on Monday, which is an all-time record for the Cupertino-based computer company. Monday's high now puts Apple's market cap over $514 billion, which now exceeds Exxon's market cap by more than $100 billion.

For the December quarter, Apple sold 37 million iPhones, 15.4 million iPads and 5.2 million Macs. 

"We're thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs," CEO Tim Cook says.

© 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.