Apple CEO Tim Cook, with an eye toward the all-important holiday
shopping season, introduced new thinner, faster, lighter versions of the
iPad tablet, refreshed the company’s MacBook Pro notebooks and cut
prices. Cook also set a ship date for the Mac Pro high-powered desktop
computer and said it was giving away its operating system software,
productivity and creative apps for free to entice buyers and get more of
its users onto the latest versions.
“It’s been an incredible period for innovation and new products,” Cook said in a 90-minute presentation today in San Francisco. “Any other company would be incredibly proud to have just one of these new products.”
The news, though, was largely anticipated by Apple watchers. Apple’s shares were trading down $6.55, or 1.3 percent, to $514.81 at the close of Cook’s presentation.
Investors have been clamoring for Cook and Apple to speed up their new product rollout schedule to boost sales growth and fend off rivals from Amazon to Google to Samsung in the two markets where it gets about 70 percent of its sales: smartphones and tablets. Amazon, with its Kindle, and Google, with its Nexus, already offer high-definition displays in their small screen tablets, and Samsung beat Apple to market with its release last month of a smartwatch called the Gear that works with its Galaxy phone. Analysts don’t expect Cook, who last month introduced the new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c as well as a faster iMac desktop, to unveil a smartwatch until next year.
To capitalize on the holiday shopping season, Cook focused attention today on the iPad, the Mac and software. In his overview of the iPad, Cook said Apple has sold 170 million tablets since introducing the “magical” device” three and a half year ago.. Today, the company announced a redesigned version of its large-screen iPad and updated the 7.9-inch iPad mini, adding the faster A7 chip it introduced in the iPhone 5s, and fronting the tablet with a high-resolution Retina display. The iPad mini is priced, like its predecessor, starting at $399 for 16-gigs with Wifi. It will be available later this month.
Apple said it will also keep selling the original iPad mini, but reduced the price from $329 to $299.
The 9.7-inch iPad, meanwhile, has been replaced with a sleeker model called the iPad Air, which also adds an A7 chip in a lighter 1-pound design. It will be available Nov. 1, starting at $499 for the 16-gig model. (Details of both iPads can be found on Apple’s site here.) As expected, Apple is also selling colorful new covers and cases for the tablets.
Ovum analyst Jan Dawson praised Apple for adding the most advanced
tech to its iPad Air, saying the new tablet was “a good enough boost to
the previous version to trigger good upgrade sales and get iPad
shipments growing again, which was a key objective for this launch.” But
Apple’s pricing across the iPad line may not woo users away from
lower-priced tablets built around Google’s Android operating system.
“This is the clearest statement Apple could have made that it is only interested in competing in the premium tablet space. The yawning gap between the specs of the cheaper iPad Mini and iPad 2 and the new iPads signifies that it is only willing to compete at the lower price points with older models,” Booty said in an email statement. “This leaves a huge chunk of the tablet market unserved by Apple while others such as Google, Amazon and a raft of others aggressively target the sub-$400 market. This reinforces our view that Apple’s share in tablets will continue to fall as Android’s share rises over the coming years.”
Apple also added faster processors to its MacBook Pro notebooks with Retina displays, cutting the starting price of its 13-inch and 15-inch models by $200. The new notebooks are available today, but users looking for the Mac Pro will have to wait until it ships before the end of the year.
The new OS X operating system software for the Mac, called Mavericks, is shipping today for free. Apple is also releasing the latest versions of its iWork and iLife apps for the Mac, iPhone and iPad for free. ”We are turning the industry on its ear,” Cook said. “But this i not why we’re doing it. We’re doing it because we want our customers to have our latest software and access to the greatest new features.”
Apple’s software giveaway could put pressure on Microsoft to also rethink the cost of its software, Ovum’s Dawson said. “Microsoft generates 96% of its operating margins from operating system and productivity software licensing, and Apple is now teaching people to expect both of those things to be free. While this won’t disrupt Microsoft’s business overnight, it will create further pressure on Microsoft to bring down prices for its productivity software and especially for Windows.”
Cook was joined on stage by marketing chief Phil Schiller, iTunes head Eddy Cue and software chief Craig Federighi, who took turns demoing new products. As always, the audience was filled with tech notables, including Path CEO Dave Morin, Flipboard co-founder Mike McCue, former Apple CTO Avie Tevanian, and Apple board member Bill Campbell.
“It’s been an incredible period for innovation and new products,” Cook said in a 90-minute presentation today in San Francisco. “Any other company would be incredibly proud to have just one of these new products.”
The news, though, was largely anticipated by Apple watchers. Apple’s shares were trading down $6.55, or 1.3 percent, to $514.81 at the close of Cook’s presentation.
Investors have been clamoring for Cook and Apple to speed up their new product rollout schedule to boost sales growth and fend off rivals from Amazon to Google to Samsung in the two markets where it gets about 70 percent of its sales: smartphones and tablets. Amazon, with its Kindle, and Google, with its Nexus, already offer high-definition displays in their small screen tablets, and Samsung beat Apple to market with its release last month of a smartwatch called the Gear that works with its Galaxy phone. Analysts don’t expect Cook, who last month introduced the new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c as well as a faster iMac desktop, to unveil a smartwatch until next year.
To capitalize on the holiday shopping season, Cook focused attention today on the iPad, the Mac and software. In his overview of the iPad, Cook said Apple has sold 170 million tablets since introducing the “magical” device” three and a half year ago.. Today, the company announced a redesigned version of its large-screen iPad and updated the 7.9-inch iPad mini, adding the faster A7 chip it introduced in the iPhone 5s, and fronting the tablet with a high-resolution Retina display. The iPad mini is priced, like its predecessor, starting at $399 for 16-gigs with Wifi. It will be available later this month.
Apple said it will also keep selling the original iPad mini, but reduced the price from $329 to $299.
The 9.7-inch iPad, meanwhile, has been replaced with a sleeker model called the iPad Air, which also adds an A7 chip in a lighter 1-pound design. It will be available Nov. 1, starting at $499 for the 16-gig model. (Details of both iPads can be found on Apple’s site here.) As expected, Apple is also selling colorful new covers and cases for the tablets.
Apple's global marketing chief Phil Schiller unveils the thinner, lighter iPad Air tablet at an event in San Francisco today.
“This is the clearest statement Apple could have made that it is only interested in competing in the premium tablet space. The yawning gap between the specs of the cheaper iPad Mini and iPad 2 and the new iPads signifies that it is only willing to compete at the lower price points with older models,” Booty said in an email statement. “This leaves a huge chunk of the tablet market unserved by Apple while others such as Google, Amazon and a raft of others aggressively target the sub-$400 market. This reinforces our view that Apple’s share in tablets will continue to fall as Android’s share rises over the coming years.”
Apple also added faster processors to its MacBook Pro notebooks with Retina displays, cutting the starting price of its 13-inch and 15-inch models by $200. The new notebooks are available today, but users looking for the Mac Pro will have to wait until it ships before the end of the year.
The new OS X operating system software for the Mac, called Mavericks, is shipping today for free. Apple is also releasing the latest versions of its iWork and iLife apps for the Mac, iPhone and iPad for free. ”We are turning the industry on its ear,” Cook said. “But this i not why we’re doing it. We’re doing it because we want our customers to have our latest software and access to the greatest new features.”
Apple’s software giveaway could put pressure on Microsoft to also rethink the cost of its software, Ovum’s Dawson said. “Microsoft generates 96% of its operating margins from operating system and productivity software licensing, and Apple is now teaching people to expect both of those things to be free. While this won’t disrupt Microsoft’s business overnight, it will create further pressure on Microsoft to bring down prices for its productivity software and especially for Windows.”
Cook was joined on stage by marketing chief Phil Schiller, iTunes head Eddy Cue and software chief Craig Federighi, who took turns demoing new products. As always, the audience was filled with tech notables, including Path CEO Dave Morin, Flipboard co-founder Mike McCue, former Apple CTO Avie Tevanian, and Apple board member Bill Campbell.
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