Following the posting of our
detailed article on Tuesday's Apple Mac and iPad event we received a number of requests to provide additional details on the iPad Air. Not being the sorts of folks who like to disappoint, we've done exactly this here. We've done so in the form of a slideshow, which we believe offers the best view into what the iPad Air has to offer.
As the final slide will show, there is still an iPad 2 in the lineup. We've provided comments in our larger article on why exactly Apple believes it can continue to offer the now quite old iPad 2. The bottom line is that there is in fact a market for these devices, though we wonder if $399 is a bit steep. Apple can no doubt squeeze substantial margins of of iPad 2s at this point in time, so if the company can indeed get $399 for them, all the better for Apple investors. Quite honestly we believe a price of $199 might have been a better option. We'll see how this pans out.
In any case, here is the slide show.
Page 1 of 12
Apple CEO Tim Cook notes that over 170 million iPads have been sold since the original shipped in 2010.
Page 2 of 12
Cook underscores that although plenty of tablets are now being sold iPads still continue to deliver an enormous 81 percent of total actual tablet usage.
Page 3 of 12
The new iPad Air, available November 1, 2013, is now introduced, completely replacing the iPad 4. Delivered in a narrower, super thin 7.5mm thick package, and weighing only 1 pound - .4 pounds lighter than its predecessor.
Page 4 of 12
The iPad Air. No, there is no fingerprint scanner.
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The iPad Air bezel along its long edges is now 43 percent narrower than the iPad 4, making it significantly narrower while still maintaining the same 9.7 inch retina display.
Page 6 of 12
The difference in width and thinness is huge. Note the same "chamfered" edges as the iPhone 5s, which visually delivers an even slimmer appearance.
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Apple's engineers found savings in thickness across every major iPad component.
Page 8 of 12
The same 64-bit 7 chip that powers the iPhone 5s now powers the iPad Air, including the M7 motion co-processor. It had been thought that perhaps the iPad Air would deliver the A7X. Perhaps that will come in a follow-up "pro" or "enterprise" iPad model that may also include the fingerprint scanner.
Page 9 of 12
CPU performance jumps 2X over the iPad 4 and 8X over the original iPad.
Page 10 of 12
Graphics performance jumps 2X over the iPad 4 but an enormous 72X over the original iPad.
Page 11 of 12
The iPad Air offers improvements across all standard features.
Page 12 of 12
Apple maintains its iPad pricing structure - $499 for the base 16 GB model and $629 for the base 16 GB LTE model. Apple will also continue to provide the old iPad 2 for $399.
At this point the clear new star of the show is the iPad Air. How soon will it be eclipsed by an iPad Pro or next gen iPad Air with an A7X chip and perhaps more internal RAM and more user memory? Very likely we won't have all that long to wait - early 2014 might easily see such an upgrade. Stay tuned.
Edited by
Tony Rizzo
