While maturity is often regarded as an asset and a perk in a wide variety of contexts, it is not a good word for tech companies when it is used for describing the appetite of consumers for their products. Yet, Apple is still trying to reignite the sales of its tablet computing devices known as iPads in an increasingly maturing market. Timothy D. Cook, the chief executive of the Cupertino, California-based firm launched the newest generation of its iPads at an event on 16th October, Thursday in the form of the iPad Air 2 and the iPad Mini 3.
These new devices now boast the fingerprint sensor that the company had first introduced in the iPhone 5S and has now become a means of making the process of online shopping as easy as that of swiping a button. As far as the iPad Air 2 is concerned, this device may be more expensive than its predecessor, but it is also thinner, faster and has a better camera that its older version. As a matter of fact, this device is so thin that the CEO described it to be even thinner than a pencil. In order to clarify this point, a video was produced by Apple in which bits of a pencil were shaved off with a laser beam to make it as skinny as its tablet.
During the event that was organized at the headquarters of the company in Silicon Valley, Tim Cook held up the device in front of the audience comprising of its employees and journalists and said that it was so slender that it wasn’t even clearly visible to everyone. However, it cannot be said that the sales of the iPad, which have been slumping, can be reinvigorated by making the iPad Air 2 a twiggy of the numerous tablet devices in the market.
The new iPads will become available to the public from October 24th and analysts have said that they expect the new versions to cause only a modest sales growth in the overall sales of the device. What these devices cannot do is achieve the incredible and triple percent growth in sales that the tablet computers had enjoyed from 2010 in the first few years when there hadn’t been much competition. Analysts termed it as crazy 180 percent growth, which couldn’t be achieved because the iPad has been normalized and matured. But, it can still grow, albeit at a normal pace.
Nonetheless, the svelte look of the iPad Air 2 cannot be denied as it has been made 40% faster and 18% thinner than its predecessor. This is a major engineering feat as it was only last year that the iPad Air had been made thinner and faster than other versions. The display of this device has also been designed for reducing reflections. The starting price of the device is $500 and its battery life lasts for 10 hours. The iPad Mini 3 isn’t thinner or faster than its predecessor and its price starts at $400. There is a gold color option available for both iPads.