Apple, which yesterday launched new iPads and Macs, also took a stab at Microsoft’s business with the announcement that its iWork applications will be free. The new operating system, Mavericks, will also be free.
iWork is a set of applications that offers similar functionality to that in Microsoft Office, and will be available free of charge to new users of Apple’s Macs or mobile devices.
As expected, the company unveiled the new iPad Air, featuring a 9,7-inch Retina display in a new thinner and lighter design.
Weighing in at less than 500g, the iPad Air is 20% thinner and 28% lighter than the fourth generation iPad, and with a narrower bezel the borders of iPad Air are dramatically thinner.
Apple also announced iPad mini with Retina display, bringing all the pixels from the 9,7-inch iPad to its 7,9-inch screen, delivering sharp text and detail in the same thin and light design.
The new iPads feature the powerful and power-efficient Apple-designed A7 chip with 64-bit desktop-class architecture, ultrafast wireless with faster built-in Wi-Fi and expanded LTE cellular connectivity, and the newly-designed iOS 7 with hundreds of new features.
“iPad created an entirely new mobile computing experience, and the new iPad Air is another big leap ahead. It is so thin, light and powerful, once you hold one in your hand you will understand what a tremendous advancement this is,” says Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior VP of Worldwide Marketing.
“iPad Air with its 9,7-inch Retina display weighs just one pound and packs the incredible performance of iOS 7 running on a 64-bit desktop-class Apple A7 chip, and delivers all-day battery life in the lightest full-sized tablet in the world.”
The iPad Air is 20% thinner and 28% lighter than the fourth generation iPad, and with a 43% narrower bezel the borders of iPad Air are dramatically thinner.
iPad Air’s Retina display makes web pages, text, images and video look incredibly sharp and realistic, and the new power-efficient A7 chip allows the battery to be even smaller, helping reduce the overall volume by 24% from the previous generation while doubling its performance and maintaining its up to 10-hour battery life.
The new iPad mini with Retina display packs all the 3.1 million pixels (2048-by-1536 resolution) of iPad Air into its 7,9-inch Multi-Touch display, for a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch. The 7,9-inch Retina display of iPad mini is 35% larger than screens on 7-inch tablets, and is the only small tablet to deliver the full iPad experience, now with sharp Retina quality.
The A7 chip in iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display offers 64-bit desktop-class architecture, advanced graphics and improved image signal processing from previous generations.
With up to twice the CPU and graphics performance on iPad Air, and up to four times the CPU and eight times the graphics performance on iPad mini with Retina display, almost everything you do is faster, from launching apps and editing photos to playing graphic-intensive games – all while delivering all-day battery life.
The A7 chip’s 64-bit architecture and support for OpenGL ES version 3.0 unlocks game console-like visual effects. The new iPads also feature the M7 motion coprocessor that gathers data from the accelerometer, gyroscope and compass to offload work from the A7 for improved power efficiency.
Both new iPads feature two antennas to support Multiple-In-Multiple-Out (MIMO) technology, bringing twice the Wi-Fi performance to iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display at a blazingly fast data rate up to 300 Mbps.
Cellular models also come with expanded LTE coverage to accommodate even more LTE networks worldwide, while continuing to deliver comprehensive support for other fast cellular technology around the world (DC-HSDPA, HSPA+), all in a single model.
iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display now have a next generation FaceTime HD camera with improved backside illumination sensors featuring larger pixels for better low-light performance.
The iSight camera with 5MP sensor and advanced optics, combined with iOS 7 and the image signal processing of A7, further improves still image and video capture on iPad bringing faster auto-focus, up to three times video zoom, five times still zoom, better dynamic range and automatic image and video stabilisation.
The new iPads come with iOS 7, featuring a stunning new user interface, redesigned with an elegant colour palette, distinct, functional layers and subtle motion that make it feel more alive.
iOS 7 has hundreds of great new features, including Control Center, Notification Center, improved Multitasking, AirDrop, enhanced Photos, Safari, Siri and introduces iTunes Radio, a free Internet radio service based on the music you listen to on iTunes.