SAN FRANCISCO - Apple Inc.'s maestro Steve Jobs took the stage to a standing ovation on Wednesday, returning to the spotlight after a medical absence to unveil the second version of the iPad, officially called "iPad 2."

“This is no toy. This is something you can use for real work,” Jobs said.

“It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough. It’s technology married with liberal arts.”

The new iPad will start shipping in the U.S. on March 11 and in Canada on March 25.

The 0.5-kilogram iPad will be “dramatically faster,” Jobs said, “up to twice as fast on CPU performance.” It will feature rear- and front-facing video cameras and a gyroscope. At 8.8 mm in thickness, it’s thinner than an iPhone, and it comes in two colours: black and white.

“We like to do applications,” Jobs said before announcing iMovie with multi-track audio, Garageband, and FaceTime.

Also new: better performance with Safari, iTunes home sharing, improvements to AirPlay, and the personal Wi-Fi hotspot.

Expect “really cool accessories,” Jobs said, including HDMI video out and “smart covers” that feature a bendable flap that wakes up or puts to sleep the iPad and can be removed or added more easily than the old covers. The cover also cleans the screen.

The familiar sight of the Silicon Valley legend and industry icon Jobs cheered fans and investors, who had worried about the health of the charismatic company co-founder.

In the run-up to the event, there had been almost as much speculation about whether Jobs would appear as there was about the device itself. Jobs, who has been treated for a rare form of cancer, had been on indefinite medical leave for an undisclosed condition.

Since April, the iPad has become a bona fide smash, essentially creating the tablet category and triggering a wave of me-too products that are just starting to hit the market.

Now, as rivals Motorola and Research in Motion race to catch up, Apple itself is going through a transformation.

The company is in little danger of losing its massive lead in the tablet market in the near term. With a big first-mover advantage, the company is rolling out the second-generation iPad just as most its rivals are bringing their first offerings to consumers.

The new model will sport the same 10-inch screen but should be lighter, thinner and faster, according to a plethora of analyst and blog reports. Apple is expected to add a camera to enable video chat using the FaceTime application.

Shares of some Taiwanese component makers rose in Asian trade on Wednesday ahead of the launch.

Camera module maker Genius Electronic Optical Co Ltd and lens manufacturer Largan Precision Co Ltd were starting new supply deals with Apple, two sources said in December, but neither could confirm for which product the modules were intended.

Component makers generally do not know what the finished product will look like because they are only responsible for manufacturing one part before passing it on for assembly.

Some industry watchers believe the new model may also sport a chip that enables it to run on networks that use both GSM and CDMA technologies.

Consumer appetite for tablets seems sizable, and businesses are also piloting the devices for a variety of uses, including retail and healthcare. But Apple no longer has the tablet market to itself.

Motorola has just launched the well-reviewed Xoom. Research in Motion, which specializes in corporate customers with its BlackBerry, will begin selling the PlayBook. And Hewlett-Packard Co will bring the TouchPad this summer.

Companies such as Samsung Electronics and Dell Inc are already selling tablets, but neither seems to have slowed the iPad’s momentum.

Apple set a high bar with the first iPad, so the company will have a harder time creating a “wow-factor” with the second iteration.

It sold nearly 15 million iPads in 2010 after an April launch, three or even four times as many as some analysts had predicted. The tablet added more than $9 billion in revenue for the company last year.

It became a must-have for the holiday season, embraced by taste arbiters such as Oprah Winfrey.

Analysts expect Apple to sell more than 30 million iPads this year, as the overall tablet market explodes to more than 50 million units.