New iPad Air
Apple officially unveiled its refreshed line of iPads at an event in San Francisco, California on Tuesday, 22 October 2013.
The next iPad (technically the iPad 5) will be named the iPad Air.
The iPad Air has a different physical design from its predecessors, resembling a large iPad Mini.
Senior vice-president of worldwide marketing at Apple, Phil Schiller, said that in addition to a smaller bezel, the new iPad Air is much thinner at 7.5mm thick, and lighter at 1 pound.
“That makes it the lightest full-size tablet in the world,” Schiller said.
Inside, the iPad Air has an A7 chip, which Schilller said delivers twice the CPU and graphics performance. It also has an M7 motion controller, Schiller said.
Similar to the new iPhone 5s and 5c, Apple also announced expanded support for Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks.
The iPad Air is set to go on sale from 1 November in a host of countries (but not South Africa).
Pricing for the new iPad Air is the same as the launch prices of the iPads that came before it, and will replace the current “iPad with Retina display” (aka iPad 4), Schiller said:
- 16GB with Wi-Fi: $499
- 16GB with Wi-Fi + Cellular: $629
The iPad 2 will remain available from $399.
iPad mini with Retina in hand
New iPad Mini with Retina
An update to the 7.9-inch iPad Mini is also coming. Schiller, said that the new iPad Mini will have the same resolution as the newly announced “iPad Air” at 2048×1536.
As with the iPad Air, it also boasts expanded support for Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks.
It gets a 5 megapixel rear camera, and the “Facetime HD” front-facing camera.
It was also rumoured that production delays of the new 7.9-inch Retina display which the new iPad Mini is fitted with could push back the launch of the device to 2014.
However, Schiller said that the new iPad Mini will go on sale during November 2013.
Schiller announced the following prices for the iPad Mini:
- 16GB with Wi-Fi: $399
- 16GB with Wi-Fi + Cellular: $529.
The original iPad Mini will still be sold, with the 16GB model’s price dropping to $299 in the US.
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