Tim Cook, Apple's COO, has confirmed that the company is working on a new iPad, while at the same time suggesting that the current competition just isn’t up to the challenge.

“If you look at what’s shipping today, there isn’t much out there. There are two kinds of groups in the market today”, said Apple’s new day-to-day boss during the company’s financial earning report conference call on Tuesday. “Ones that are using windows are generally big and heavy and expensive. They have weak battery life or require a keyboard or stylus to work. Customers aren’t interested in them".

Windows tablets slammed, Cook moved on to Android-powered tablets, like the Samsung Galaxy Tab:

“Then you have Android tablets, but the operating system wasn’t designed for them”, said Cook, citing Google’s comments along the same line. “So you wind up having something the size of a tablet that is less than we believe is reasonable, so you end up with a scaled-up smartphone. You end up with a bizarre product. Those are tablets that we don’t have any concern on”.

"It's hard for me to understand if somebody does a side-by-side with an iPad, some enormous percentage of people are gonna select an iPad there", he added.

Tough words, but what about the 26 plus tablets announced at CES at the beginning of January:

“The third batch, as in the ones announced at CES, nothing is shipping yet. They lack performance, timing and prices. Essentially they are vapour”.

Confirming the company is working on the next version of the iPad, Cook said:

“We aren’t sitting still. We have a huge user experience from iTunes to the App Store. We are very confident with entering into a fight with anyone”.

"The iPad team is building the best iPad for the future", Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO added later in the conference call before adding "We've been running three quarters without any competition".

Bold words on what is essentially the first day of his new job.

- Apple admits iPad cannibalisation of PC market