Apple CEO Tim Cook holding the new 1-Lb iPad Air tablet at the San Francisco unveiling on Tuesday, October 22, 2013. (Click Image To Enlarge)
On Tuesday, October 22, 2013, Apple held a new product unveiling event before the press at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center For The Arts. Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke about Apple's recent product releases and its quest for new product innovation, then turned the microphone over to Phil Schiller, Apple's V.P. of Global Marketing, who introduced the press to the iPad Air, a 5th generation iPad equipped with a 9.7 inch retina display, the new 64-bit A7 microprocessor and weighing only 1-lb, and the 2nd generation iPad Mini now equipped with a 7.9 inch retina display and new 64-bit A7 microprocessor.
Apple CEO Tim Cook was joined on stage by marketing chief Phil Schiller, iTunes head Eddy Cue and software chief Craig Federighi, who took turns demoing new products. As always, the audience was filled with tech notables, including Path CEO Dave Morin, Flipboard co-founder Mike McCue, former Apple CTO Avie Tevanian, and Apple board member Bill Campbell.
iPad Air
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Apple unveiled the iPad Air, the fifth generation of its iPad tablet. The newly named iPad Air features a design that's reminiscent of the iPad mini released last year. It's thinner and lighter than prior versions, and features a smaller bezel, which shrinks the footprint of the tablet down without compromising on screen size. Apple says it's 20 percent thinner at only 7.5mm thick, and weighs just 1.0 pound (28 percent less than the previous iPad). The screen remains the same; it's a 9.7-inch Retina Display with 2048 x 1536 pixel resolution. This is the first major redesign of Apple's flagship tablet since the iPad 2 was released in March 2011.
The iPad Air features the 64-bit A7 processor and M7 motion coprocessor found in the iPhone 5S, which Apple says is 8 times faster and has 72 times better graphics performance than the processor in the original iPad released in 2010. It also has a 5-megapixel iSight camera and FaceTime HD front-facing camera and 10 hour battery life. Apple says the iPad Air has twice the data transfer rate on Wi-Fi thanks to new MIMO 802.11n support, but it doesn't support 802.11ac.
Phil Schiller, Apple V.P. Global Marketing, explains why the new iPad Air is so thin (Click Images To Enlarge)
The iPad Air will be available in silver and white and space grey and black color options starting at $499 in dozens of countries on November 1st. An LTE version will be available starting at $629. Apple is also keeping the geriatric iPad 2 in the lineup for $399. All of the new iPads will be shipping with iOS 7.
iPad Mini 2
iPad mini with Retina display and 64-bit processor coming in November for $399 (Click Image To Enlarge)
Apple's worst-kept secret and one of its most momentous announcements of the day has just been made: the iPad mini is getting upgraded with a new Retina display. The new screen's resolution is 2048 x 1536 — matching that of the latest 10-inch iPads — and the processor powering it is the same 64-bit Apple A7 chip as in the iPad Air and iPhone 5S.
Available in November for $399 with Wi-Fi or $529 with mobile data, the new mini is more expensive than its direct predecessor, but the first-gen device is being kept around as well. The 2012 iPad mini gets a price cut, now costing $299 and acting as Apple's entry-level tablet device.
The 2013 iPad mini will be available in either a white and silver color combo or a space gray and black pairing. One of the subtler upgrades on the list of changes is the addition of a new 128GB storage option — that will set you back $699 on the Wi-Fi mini or $829 if you want a mobile connection as well. Apple's being unusually cagey with the timing of the new iPad mini's release, identifying it only as "later in November," but Tim Cook closed off today's presentation by promising that all the new products will be available in time for the holidays.
Phil Schiller, Apple V.P. Global Marketing, alks about the new iPad Mini with retina display at the San Francisco unveiling (Click Image To Enlarge)
Alongside the refreshed 7.9-inch iPad mini, Apple is introducing a new set of colorful Smart Covers, costing $39 each, and more expansive wraparound cases that cost $69.
The new iPad Mini comes with a 7.9 inch retina display with a resolution of 2048x1536 and 326 pixels per square inch. (Click Image To Enlarge)
The new iPad Mini is equipped with the A7 chip with 64-bit architecture which is 4X faster, has 8X faster graphics with 10 hours of battery life. (Click Image To Enlarge)
iPad Air and iPad Mini 2 With Retina Display Prices and Specifications
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Full-Size Tablets Compared - iPad Air vs The Competition
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This iPad Air comparison chart includes Google's Nexus 10 (Click Image To Enlarge)
Mini Tablets Compared - iPad Mini 2 vs The Competition
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COMMENTARY: In his overview of the iPad, Tim Cook said Apple has sold 170 million tablets since introducing the “magical device” three and a half year ago.
Investors have been clamoring for Cook and Apple to speed up their new product rollout schedule to boost sales growth and fend off rivals from Amazon to Google to Samsung in the two markets where it gets about 70 percent of its sales: smartphones and tablets. Amazon, with its Kindle, and Google, with its Nexus, already offer high-definition displays in their small screen tablets, and Samsung beat Apple to market with its release last month of a smartwatch called the Gear that works with its Galaxy phone. Analysts don’t expect Cook, who last month introduced the new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c as well as a faster iMac desktop, to unveil a smartwatch until next year.
Ovum analyst Jan Dawson praised Apple for adding the most advanced tech to its iPad Air, saying,
“The iPad Air is a good enough boost to the previous version to trigger good upgrade sales and get iPad shipments growing again, which was a key objective for this launch.”
But Apple’s pricing across the iPad line may not woo users away from lower-priced tablets built around Google’s Android operating system.
Milton Booty, a technology analyst, said in an email statement.
"This is the clearest statement Apple could have made that it is only interested in competing in the premium tablet space. The yawning gap between the specs of the cheaper iPad Mini and iPad 2 and the new iPads signifies that it is only willing to compete at the lower price points with older models. This leaves a huge chunk of the tablet market unserved by Apple while others such as Google, Amazon and a raft of others aggressively target the sub-$400 market. This reinforces our view that Apple’s share in tablets will continue to fall as Android’s share rises over the coming years.”
How Apple Created The Lightest iPad Yet
Just 7.5mm wide and weighing one pound (20% lighter than the iPad 4), the iPad Air is the thinnest and lightest full-size tablet Apple has ever created. To get an idea of the magnitude of this accomplishment let's look at a comparson of the dimensions of the iPad Air and its predecessor the iPad 4.
Dimensions
iPad Air: 240x169.5x7.5mm, weighing 478g
iPad 4: 241.2x185.7x9.4mm, weighing 662g
If you were wondering how Apple's engineers were able to achieve this, it comes down to good ole fashioned design ingenuity and innovation.
- Thinner Bezel - The bezel around the iPad Air display is 7.5mm thick compared with the iPad 4's 9.4mm bezel -- a reduction in the bezel of 43 percent.
- Aluminum Chasis - The iPad Air kept the lightweight aluminium chassis of the iPad 4, but due to a thinner and lighter A7 microprocessor chip and thinner bezel, the aluminum chasis is also thinner and contributes to the overall lower weight.
- A7 Microprocessor - The iPad Air is equipped with the new A7 microprocessor chip with 64-bit architecture which is blazzingly fast: Processes data 4 times faster than the A6 chip and displays graphics 8 times faster. Apple was also able to shrink the down the process with which the A7 chip was made from 32 nanometers to just 28 nanometers--remember, the smaller a chip is, the less electricity it needs to run--meaning that, not only is the A7 chip powerful enough to drive an iPad's Retina Display, it's more power-efficient too.
- Power Saving Retina Display - The iPaid Air is rumored to be using Sharp's indium gallium zinc oxide or IGZO thin-film transistor display technology (or something like it). IGZO allows more light from a display's backlight to shine through to the pixels of the screen to produce a brighter display without draining excessive power from the battery. During the iPad unveiling event, Apple quietly made mention in their presentation unveiling the new iPad Air and Retina iPad mini that both devices used "improved backside illumination."
With the iPad Air and Retina iPad mini, Apple has been able to finally ditch the much thicker and power-draining A6 microprocessor. The 64-bit A7 chip that Apple debuted with the iPhone 5s has powerful enough graphics in its default configuration to handle a 3-million-pixel-plus Retina Display. Apple was also able to shrink the down the process with which the A7 chip was made from 32 nanometers to just 28 nanometers--remember, the smaller a chip is, the less electricity it needs to run--meaning that, not only is the A7 chip powerful enough to drive an iPad's Retina Display, it's more power-efficient too.
Courtesy of an article dated October 22, 2013 appearing in The Verge, an article date October 22, 2013 appearing in The Verge, an article dated October 23, 2013 appearing in Business Insider, an article dated October 24, 2013 appearing in The Gazelle, an article dated October 22 2013 appearing in Mashable, an article dated October 22, 2013 appearing in Forbes, an article dated October 23, 2013 appearing in The Inquirer, an article dated October 22, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Design
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