iPads becoming the new in-flight entertainment system

[Phil Bunch]

An interesting trend:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-06-06/ipads-help-some-airlines-cut-costs

Amazing how the weight of the wiring and other components adds up for a large airliner.

I wonder where they store say 400 iPads on-board?  It would be a nuisance to have to manually carry the things to the passengers, but I guess they could simply load up a heavy-duty cart and wheel the thing through the aisles.  

Also, it might be tempting for some passengers to steal the iPad, but they have presumably figured out how to prevent that.  Perhaps they are hard-wired to be useless outside of an airplane, or registered with Apple so they cannot be restored to a blank factory default iPad.