Apple’s iPad Air is a major improvement, the best tablet

 Apple Inc has not reinvented the wheel with the iPad Air, but the thinner device, priced higher than many of its competitors, is a major improvement on a successful product, the reviewers wrote on Tuesday.

Writing for the Wall Street Journal, Walt Mossberg called the iPad Air the best tablet he has ever reviewed.

“That isn’t just because of its slimmer, lighter design, but because Apple boasts 475,000 apps optimized for tablet use – far more than any other tablet platform,” Mossberg wrote.

Mossberg said the new iPad weighs just 1 pound, down from 1.4 pounds for the previous top-of-the-line model, the iPad 4, which is being discontinued.

He also credited the iPad Air’s battery performance, saying the new iPad clocked a battery life of 12 hours and 13 minutes, which exceeded Apple’s claim.

The new full-sized iPad goes on sale from Friday and will be priced starting $499.

Damon Darlin of the New York Times said the gadget is a delight to use, with two antennas to pull in Wi-Fi signals faster than the previous versions did.

Reviewer David Pogue, who recently left the New York Times to start a new consumer-tech website at Yahoo, said the iPad Air is “a fantastic leap into the future if you’re upgrading from an original iPad, or if you’ve never owned a tablet before.”

Pogue said the iPad Air is powered by the A7 64-bit chip, which, according to Apple, means smoother animation in 3D games.

“As a nice bonus, all of Apple’s excellent tablet apps – iMovie, iPhoto, GarageBand, Pages, Numbers, Keynote – are free with a new iPad. Since they’re usually $5 or $10 each, that’s a sweet bundle,” Pogue said, before adding “that’s what’s new in the iPad Air.”

However, all three reviewers highlighted that the iPad Air is pricier than many of its competitors.

“Do you need to plunk down $500 or more for an Air if you already have an earlier version of the iPad?,” Darlin asked, calling the improvements on the new device “incremental, not revolutionary.”

Amazon.com Inc’s 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HDX costs $379, Microsoft’s Surface 2 starts from $449, while Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 3 10.1-inch tablet has a suggested retail price of $400.

Pogue said that given the price, an iPad probably does not need replacing every year or even every other year.

Mossberg concluded: “Bottom line: If you can afford it, the new iPad Air is the tablet I recommend, hands down.”

source: interaksyon.com

Apple offers free OS upgrades for life

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple Inc on Tuesday offered free upgrades for life on its operating system and business software, and unveiled thinner iPads and faster Mac computers ahead of a competitive holiday shopping season.

The debut of the one-pound iPad Air and MacBook Pro with sharper ‘retina’ display repeats a pattern of recent launches with improvements in existing lines rather than totally new products, and Apple shares fell 0.3 percent for the day.







Apple said upgrades to its Mac operating system and iWork software suite, which compete with Microsoft Corp’s Excel, Word and other applications, will now be offered for all MacBooks and Mac computers.

That brings Apple’s model of free system software upgrades on phones and tablets to the computer market, where Apple is still the underdog to Microsoft’s Windows.

Apple may be trying to safeguard its grip on mobile software as Microsoft revs up its Windows-powered Surface Pro, which runs applications, such as Word or Excel, that are the standard for business customers, analysts said.

“We are turning the industry on its ear, but this is not why we’re doing it,” Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook told media and technology executives at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center.

“We want our customers to have our latest software.”

The market is awash in inexpensive tablets running Google Inc’s Android software, but the company may be focused on fending off a threat from the high end.

“In the tablet PC market, they do think Microsoft is a bigger threat than Android,” said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi. “The iPad Air will compete with Surface Pro, not some rinky-dink Android tablet.”

Gartner estimates that Apple’s share of the global tablet market will slip to 47.2 percent in 2014, with Android-based tablets just overtaking Apple’s this year. The IT research outfit expects Microsoft tablets to grab 3.4 percent of the market this year, double the 1.7 percent forecast for 2013.



Pressure

Microsoft gets 65 percent of its Windows revenue, which totaled $19.2 billion last fiscal year, from PC manufacturers which put the system on its machines, and 35 percent from other sources, chiefly people and businesses buying its software separately to install themselves.

The latest version of Windows, when bought separately to install on an old computer, starts at $120 for a home version and goes up to $200 for the full ‘Pro’ version. The latest Windows 8.1 upgrade was free for customers running Windows 8.

Apple’s product launches on Tuesday were evolutionary, with the new iPads equipped with faster processors and better screens. Cook, at an industry conference in May, had hinted at “several more game changers” from Apple which could include wearable computers, but had not given a time frame.

“As always with Apple, expectations on systematic breakthrough hardware innovations are irrational,” said Forrester analyst Thomas Husson said. “Apple is good at inventing new products and at maximizing profitability of its product range over time through software innovations and clever marketing.”

Apple’s new iPad Air – its full-size tablet – is about 20 percent thinner than the previous generation of tablets, weighs one pound and starts at $499. It will go on sale on November 1.

The iPad mini now has a “retina” high-resolution screen and starts at $399, compared with $329 for the previous mini model. The two new tablets would face stiff competition, with Microsoft, Nokia and Amazon.com Inc all plugging rival devices in coming months.

Apple also showed off a new Mac Pro, a premium and high-powered cylindrical desktop computer that will be assembled in United States. It had shown the computer at a previously event.

For the first, Apple will launch the new iPads simultaneously in the United States and China, its biggest market, which is also a key growth region.

Apple, which jumpstarted the tablet computing market in 2010 with the first iPad, has already come under increasing pressure from cheaper devices ranging from Amazon’s Kindle Fire to Samsung Electronics Co Ltd’s Note.

But while Apple is ceding market share to rivals, its superior library of apps and content should safeguard its lead for years to come, analysts say.

Longer term however, investors hope to see real device innovation from a company that has not unveiled a new breakthrough product in years.

Cook on Tuesday dismissed the competition as directionless.

“Our competition is different: they’re confused,” he said. “Now they’re trying to make PCs into tablets and tablets into PCs. Who knows what they’ll do next?”

“We have a very clear direction and a very ambitious goal. We still believe deeply in this category and we’re not slowing down on our innovation.”

source: interaksyon.com