Apple has just introduced the all new 5th generation iPad with Retina display called the iPad Air, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco, CA, featuring an all new chassis design that is 20% thinner and 0.4 pounds lighter than the previous generation full-sized iPad. The iPad Air packs the new Apple-designed A7 processor, the same processing chip found in the iPhone 5S. While delivering an incredible 10 hours of battery life in a thinner and lighter iPad design, it also sports a 5-Megapixel iSight camera, an improved FaceTime HD camera, dual microphones, and comes in same Silver / White and Space Gray / Black colour options. Full details continue after the break.
Design & Display:
The new 9.7″ iPad Air features a 43% thinner bezel than the previous generation iPad and weighs merely 1 pounds, making it the lightest full-sized tablet in the world. Phil Schiller said it offers a “dramatically different experience to hold”. The new Retina display iPad Air is 7.5mm thin versus 9.4mm for the previous version. It will be available in Silver / White and Space Gray / Black colours
A7 Chip With M7 Co-processor:
It features the next generation system-on-a-chip A7 processor with 64-bit desktop class architecture. It has full Xcode support, and is backwards compatible. CPU and graphics are twice as fast. The M7 motion co-processor, found in the iPhone 5S, is included as well. Apple notes that it the first iOS device with MIMO for faster 802.11n performance.
iSight & FaceTime Cameras:
The iPad Air features 5MP iSight camera with ability to shoot 1080p HD video. It also sports a new, improved FaceTime HD camera with larger pixels, improved backside illumination and dual microphones.
Pricing, Pre-Orders & Availability:
The new iPad Air will be available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB for $519, $619, and $719 (Wi-fi only models) and $649, $749, and $849 (W-ifi + Cellular models) respectively in the U.S on November 1st in over 40 countries including the US, Canada, UK, France, Australia, Japan, Germany, Singapore and China. Canada pays $20 more.
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“Air”? Really!? Somebody give me a logical reason why this makes sense.
Next year, they won’t be able to justify dragging over the iPad 2 for yet another year – as the heavier non-air (I’m surprised they even did it THIS year). So how then will they be able to have the “Air” designation make sense – like it does for the MacBook?
Soooo… they should’ve called it the “Rocky Balboa” iPad because it’s the heavy weight amongst tablets?
Don’t hold your panties in a -bunch-, they can name it whatever they want to name it.
It’s a legitimate question and discussion point. If you can’t contribute to such a discussion with something intelligent, then why bother posting at all?
Incidentally, “Don’t hold your panties in a nut” isn’t a saying and makes absolutely no sense.
I stand corrected, it’s “Don’t hold your panties in a bunch” which you are.
Why post? Because I can.
Still wrong about the saying.
“Because I can” … Really? I haven’t heard anything intelligent yet.
Right now, you have MB Air & rMBP. So by renaming the iPad to iPad Air, maybe (and I’m just speculating) next year, there will be larger-screen iPad Pro.
Hmmm… Interesting.
They should simply rename the MacBook Pro to the usual Macbook. Simple. Would like everything to make sense, why not :
Macs line :
-iMac
-iMac Air (MacBook Pro)
-iMac Mini (Macbook air)
iPads line :
-iPad
-iPad mini
iPods line :
iPod (iPod Touch)
iPod Mini (iPod Shuffle)
iPod Air (iPod Nano)
just my two cents but I would like it, guess its too late to change anyway…
Keep calm and carry on
Well, as a marketer, it makes absolute sense. The “Air” name denotes something that is crazy light and has great performance. And yes, it creates an expectation for a larger “Pro” model. The iPad2 is left this year because it still sells in decent numbers. Why overhaul your logistics process when you don’t have to?
The air name is an unnecessary designation if there will be nothing in the future that denotes a non-Air.
There wasn’t any mention of any “Pro” model, and there most likely won’t be (it’s an iPad after all). So the “Air” designation is insignificant, and just creates confusion.
Not impressed at all. Destroying original retina display’s PPI on iPad mini to match it with iPad Air was very unlike Job-based Apple. Apple is falling again. Btw is this iphoneincanada.com or ipadincanada.com???
Yea… I don’t follow iPadInCanada anymore because everything there is repeated here in iPhoneInCanada.
Complain all you want. This is entirely consistent with Apple’s strategy. They’ll sell a lot of these devices (as usual).
What on earth are you talking about? They didn’t do anything to change the resolution of the iPad Air. It’s the same resolution as the previous retina model. What do you mean by “destroying the original retina display’s PPI”?
my GOD ! it is 2 (2 ! !) mm thinner !