Ondrej Holzman Tuesday night was supposed to belong to the iPads, and they finally did Mavericks, MacBook Pro a Mac Pro really got In terms of internals and news in both iPads, large and small, Apple confirmed the previous speculations and therefore did not surprise. In the end, however, he prepared one unexpected news - the big iPad is now called iPad Air. What does it mean?
Unification of the product line
In the first place, the thought will certainly arise that Apple is diversifying its next product line, but with the iPad, this statement is not very accurate. The iPad Air, iPad mini and iPad 2 are now available, but the iPad 2 will probably not be with us for a long time. So back to the iPad Air.
Apple had several reasons for changing the 4th generation iPad, or upgrading it to the iPad Air. Even the iPad 2, i.e. iPad 3 and iPad 4, was very thin. In Cupertino, however, they were not satisfied with that and on Tuesday showed an even thinner tablet, which is the thinnest device of its kind in the world at 7,5 millimeters. That's why the moniker Air – modeled after the thin MacBook Air – fits here.
Another very good argument why the iPad Air came is to avoid the ever-increasing number in the product name. For some Apple products, he never used numerical designations (MacBooks), for some, on the contrary, he had not yet come up with a different name (iPhones), and for iPads he had it half resolved. The iPad mini (now called the iPad mini with Retina display) has until now complemented the iPad 4 (officially called the 4th generation iPad), and personally, it makes more sense for me to have the iPad Air and iPad mini side by side than the iPad 5 and iPad mini. In short, it is the unification of names within the product line.
Zoom in on both models
However, unification, or better said convergence with iPads, did not only take place in terms of names. Both models, the larger and smaller iPad, are now more similar than ever before (although the smaller iPad has of course only been on the market for a year). When the first iPad mini appeared last year, it was an instant hit, although some doubted it, and willy-nilly, the big iPad was somewhat left behind.
The iPad mini was more mobile, significantly lighter, and many users even made the compromise for it that they chose it at the expense of the absence of a Retina display, screen size aside. Apple certainly noticed this, and that's why this year it did everything to make the large iPad as attractive as its smaller brother. That's why the iPad Air has more than 40 percent smaller bezels around the display, that's why the iPad Air is significantly lighter, and that's why the iPad Air is significantly more compact, even though it still retains a large 9,7-inch display. The exterior, however, faithfully approached the iPad mini.
It will now be much more difficult for users to decide whether to buy a larger or smaller Apple tablet, understandably in the positive sense of the word. The internals are now the same for both iPads, so the only difference is the size of the display (if you don't count the pixel density, which is higher on the iPad mini), and that's good news for Apple. The attractiveness of both models has equaled, and the larger iPad Air, on which the Californian company has much higher margins, should sell better than its predecessors, or as well as the iPad mini.
Whether this forecast is correct, only time will tell, but deciding more or less only on the basis of the display size and not solving other details is good for both the customer and Apple in terms of the distribution of income from individual models.
Half-dead iPad 2
In addition to the new iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display, Apple surprisingly kept the iPad 2 in its offer. Even more surprising is the fact that it kept it in the offer (it only offers the 16GB version) at the same price as the iPad mini with Retina is now sold display. For the same price, you can now buy a brand new iPad mini loaded with the latest technologies and a two and a half year old iPad 2 with a processor that is not one but two generations older. In my opinion, no sane person can buy an iPad 2 at the moment.
The reason why Apple kept the iPad 2 in its portfolio, at least in the basic version, is apparently simple. The tablet from 2011 is a very popular product in schools and other institutions, which Apple offers promotional prices as part of its programs, so the price is subsequently acceptable.
However, I can't imagine that a regular user would come into a store and ask for an iPad 2. A device without a Retina display and with a 30-pin connector, when they can get a much better and more powerful machine for the same money. Therefore, the iPad 2 probably has a maximum of one year of life ahead of it, before taking a well-deserved vacation.
Potential for iPad Pro?
Considering that Apple has named the new iPad the same as one of the MacBooks has already been named, a possible question arises as to whether, in addition to the iPad Air, an iPad Pro may also appear in the future, following the example of the MacBooks (although it was the other way around there), if for this let's put the iPad mini aside for a moment.
Apple certainly has such an opportunity to diversify the iPad product line even more, but the question is what it could offer in such an iPad Pro. At the moment, both current models are packed with the latest technology, and the iPad Pro could not come up with anything significantly new and revolutionary in terms of performance and components.
However, the situation would be different if Apple decided to fulfill the wishes of some analysts and present an iPad with an even larger screen than the current 9,7 inches. Whether it makes sense at the moment or not, the iPad mini was written off by everyone at first and ended up selling tens of millions.
"In Cupertino, however, they weren't satisfied with that..." Please check the spelling :-) and then delete the post... it's a bit eye-catching
Regarding the name: I think that one of the reasons was to differentiate the New iPad and the iPad... Remember that they would call it the New iPad (5th generation) and a customer came to the store wanting a cover for his new iPad. The seller would have no idea and could give him a bad name.
They didn't even call iPad 3 New iPad, it was simply new iPad. They probably wanted to get rid of the numbering and switch to a similar system as with Macs (late 2013 and similar), but they obviously miscalculated. Interesting what they will do in a year - iPad Air 2 (6th generation), iPad Air (late 2014)?
Technically speaking, the iPad 2 has a 3 generation older chip. iPad 3 had A5X and iPad 4 had A6X.
In the article, you incorrectly refer to iPad 4th Generation as its official name. It was (is) an iPad with a Retina display (yes, even though it also had the 3rd Generation (the official name of which was the New iPad), which caused chaos for some customers)
I think there will be a Pro sometime... and now I really don't know which one to buy, because the price of the smaller one is logically lower, and whether the big one is worth it (I've always wanted a big one) is questionable now :) I want to compare them in November and I will make up my mind permanently :D
I know it's a bit old, but it's the latest article, so I'm writing it here. Would you please write an article on how to do a clean install of OS X Mavericks?
Download OS X from the app store and then it will guide you by itself - the installation will start by itself
Oh yeah, but he wanted to do a clean install. When it's downloaded from the App store, it's basically an update (at least that's how it was for me).
Also in Mavericks in Safari 7.0 do you have a problem with 170% (I have a core 2 duo) CPU usage on some sites? It happens to me mainly on idnes; i load any page and it jumps to 100-170%. Idnes even froze several times, I had to turn off Safari via the Activity Monitor.
Safari keeps freezing for me on various websites. Some sites won't even load or take too long.
Same for me on iPhone 4S.
Poll: Air/mini? :)
air
Air. :)
Air Xd
Definitely the Mini… Last year I couldn’t choose and the iPad4 was a compromise… Now the Mini is the perfect device for me… The iPad4 will go from home ;-)
I would like to ask if you know how it is with midnight iPad sales in the Czech Republic. Does it happen or not?
Finally an iPad that I'm seriously considering. I'm just one of those users who prefer bigger dislej. iPad 2 is already one foot in the grave, iPad mini is 'too mini' for me. The price of the new Air is more than fine. So I'll probably just have to wait for Jeziska :)
"The iPad 2, i.e. iPad 3 and iPad 4, was already very thin. In Cupertino, however, they weren't satisfied with that and on Tuesday they showed an even thinner tablet, which at 7,5 millimeters is the thinnest device of its kind in the world.". Dear editor, my xperia tablet Z is 6,9 mm thick, what do you think? ? Only that it wouldn't be a "device of its kind" :))