Apple's press conference on Tuesday "two swords": a new era of iPad is about to begin?

Finance Associated Press

2024-05-06 11:20Published on the official account of Cailianpress, a subsidiary of Shanghai Shanghai Media Group

Finance Associated Press, May 6 (edited by Xiaoxiang) At 10 o'clock Eastern time on Tuesday (22 o'clock Beijing time on Tuesday), Apple will hold a special event called "Let's Fly", which is expected to launch the latest tablet product line, including the new iPad Pro and iPad Air.

This will also be Apple's first major release of a tablet series since October 2022, and the current 35-minute event has already generated great interest among tech enthusiasts and "fruit fans".

According to Apple's fiscal second-quarter earnings report released last week, its iPad business revenue continued to decline last quarter, falling to $5.56 billion, below the average analyst estimate of $5.91 billion. This is mainly due to the fact that for the first time in the product's history, Apple has not upgraded the hardware of the iPad for an entire year.

While the specifics of each of the new enhancements have not been fully revealed, leaks from industry insiders on platforms such as AppleSphere have revealed that the event will showcase the new iPad Pro and iPad Air. Many industry insiders expect that Apple is expected to chart a new path for the iPad series this week, while solving the current confusing problem of multiple product lines.

In addition to the new iPad, Apple is expected to introduce a new Apple Pencil with haptic feedback, as well as a new Magic Keyboard. The introduction of these new accessories is designed to bring the iPad closer to the experience of using a laptop.

The following is expected that this Apple product update will involve the entire iPad ecosystem, including:

Released the iPad Pro equipped with the M3 chip (rumored to be the M4 chip), which used the OLED screen for the first time;

The iPad Air with the M2 chip is expected to appear in two different sizes for the first time;

发布第三代Apple Pencil；

Announcing the new Magic Keyboard.

The entry-level iPad and the new iPad mini are not expected to be released at this event.

The new iPad Pro is expected to receive a number of major updates

The new iPad Pro is undoubtedly one of the most exciting parts of the new products that are expected to be released. According to previous revelations from industry insiders, the new iPad Pro will still have two versions: 11-inch and 12.9-inch, but this time the iPad Pro will usher in the biggest update since 2018 in appearance.

A CAD drawing circulating in February this year shows that the corners of the new iPad Pro will be more rounded and the body will be thinner and lighter. Expect narrower bezels around the screen, and the position of the new tablet front camera will also change: from the portrait front of the previous generation to the landscape front.

In addition, both sizes of iPad Pro displays are expected to use OLED screens this time, which will be the first time in history. The newly upgraded OLED display will use self-illuminating technology, which will have a higher contrast ratio than mini-LEDs and can provide significant energy savings. Ross Young, a supply chain person, said that this will be the best OLED panel ever.

The previous iPad Pro 11-inch had an LCD display that supported a P3 wide color gamut with a maximum brightness of 600 nits, while the 12.9-inch iPad Pro had a mini-LED display with P3 color gamut and a maximum brightness of up to 1600 nits.

At the same time, the chip carried by the new iPad Pro this time is undoubtedly the biggest suspense in the current industry.

Although it was widely expected in the industry that the new iPad Pro would be equipped with the M3 chip if nothing else, according to the latest revelations from Bloomberg industry reporter Mark Gurman at the end of last month, the new iPad Pro may also skip the M3 chip and be directly equipped with Apple's new M4 chip.

This would indicate a major leap forward in the device's performance and become Apple's most powerful iPad ever.

What's changed in the new iPad Air?

Apple has never launched a new model of the iPad Pro and iPad Air at the same time before, so for that reason alone, Tuesday could be a very important day.

It is reported that the new iPad Air is expected to appear in two sizes for the first time - in addition to the current traditional 10.9-inch model, it seems that there will also be an iPad Air with a 12.9-inch display.

In a sense, the change makes sense: the latest MacBook Air with a larger display has been a huge success. But at the same time, for Apple, it does mean that if both the Air and Pro have a similarly sized product matrix, Apple will need to clearly distinguish their configurations and features.

In addition to the price, the generation difference of chips is perhaps the most obvious point as a differentiator. The new iPad Air is expected to be equipped with an M2 chip, which is still a lot behind the new iPad Pro, which may be equipped with an M3 or even M4 chip.

Another point of differentiation may fall on the screen – the OLED screen is not expected to appear on the Air. Previously, there was an industry report that the new larger-sized Air would use the 12.9-inch iPad Pro's miniLED display inventory that had not yet been cleared, but then industry insiders quickly refuted this claim, arguing that it would make the Air's price rise significantly.

Will Apple focus on AI?

According to previous media interviews with Cook, Apple will announce "major plans" from the "perspective of artificial intelligence" at this week's iPad conference and the annual developer conference in June.

While more significant AI innovations are not expected to be announced until the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, it's clear that a big focus of Tuesday's iPad conference will still be on whether it will come with AI features — especially if the new iPad Pro is equipped with the M4 chip, and will it be upgraded to the first iPad with AI capabilities.

In January, Microsoft overtook Apple as the world's most valuable company, and investors believed that Apple was lagging behind in the AI race between Wall Street tech giants, which directly led to the pressure on Apple's stock price during the year. However, many people still have high expectations for Apple's AI strategy, and are very eager to follow any signs of Apple's move towards AI.

According to many industry insiders, Apple may be focusing on deploying AIGC on its smart devices, which would be a breakthrough that would allow AI chatbots and apps to run on the hardware and software of phones and tablets themselves, rather than being powered by the cloud in the data center.

After the iPad was launched in 2010, Steve Jobs declared that "personal computers will be like trucks" and that iPads are the future of computers. In other words, people will be able to use tablets for most of their needs (like cars in this case) and only pull out their laptops or desktops when performing heavy tasks. A year later, when the iPad 2 came out, Jobs further emphasized this point, saying that Apple is now firmly in the post-PC era.

To some extent, Mr. Jobs was right, but it was clearly not the iPad that succeeded — millions of people now use smartphones like iPhones as their primary computers. The capabilities of smartphones have become incredible, and the larger screens have turned them into small tablets with performance comparable to those of computers. For many people, a mobile phone is enough.

But when it comes to turning the iPad into a computer replacement, Apple is losing its way. The device still lacks the multitasking capabilities of a laptop, and it doesn't have significant advantages over regular smartphones.

Mark Gurman said that now may be the time for Apple to take a "showdown" to take a stand — does it want the iPad to be a semi-finished replacement for laptops, or is it a true computing alternative? Consumers don't understand why they should buy an iPad instead of a Mac, and vice versa.

Gurman noted that from a business perspective, there has been a concern that the iPad will eat into Mac sales if it is too powerful. But so what? Neither of these products are as popular right now. Apple only needs to produce the best iPad as much as it can, and at the same time produce the best Mac – the days when Apple deliberately suppressed the iPad must be over!

(Finance Associated Press Xiaoxiang)

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