Fall Event Postmortem

Last week Apple introduced 2 new iPad’s, the iPad Air (Probably the most interesting part of the event, more later) and the Retina iPad Mini. These announcements brought upon the usual spec upgrades, new A7 chip, upgraded cameras, and retina for the Mini. As many have pointed out now these two devices are almost exactly on par with each other.

Buying an iPad mini is in no way a step down from buying an iPad Air. It’s simply a smaller device with a slightly smaller price. Chips. Graphics. Screen. Battery life. Storage space. They’re all now exactly the same on both devices. It’s really just a matter of preference.

Apple also introduced much improved Retina Macbook Pro’s. These included Haswell chips which allows for much better battery life. The more interesting side of this update was the 13 inch version. Apple was able to slim this down from .75 to .71. Compare this to the Macbook Air which is .68 at its thickest. Apple now has a device that’s more powerful, has a better display and is almost as thin as the current Macbook Air. More on this later.

Hardware wasn’t the only product to see some updates. Software did as well. Apple pushed some major updates to their iLife and iWork suite. This was good news and bad news for some. But what is more telling here is that apple has seemingly, in one event, put both iOS and OSX on par with each other in regards to their apps. They also put both their iPads on par and the Macbook Air & Pro.

iPad Pro

Apple has always stated that they would rather be the ones that cannibalize their own products than someone else. This quote from Tim Cook nails it:

“I see cannibalization as a huge opportunity for us,” Cook said Wednesday. “Our core philosophy is to never fear cannibalization. If we don’t do it, someone else will. We know that iPhone has cannibalized some of our iPod business. That doesn’t worry us. We know that iPad will cannibalize some Macs. But that’s not a concern. On iPad in particular, we have the mother of all opportunities because the Windows market is much, much larger than the Mac market. It is clear that it is already cannibalizing some. I still believe the tablet market will be larger than the PC market at some point. You can see by the growth in tablets and pressure on PCs that those lines are beginning to converge.”

Apple would rather cannibalize their own products than let someone else do it. I think the new Macbook Pro 13 inch slowly begin to be the go to laptop. For only $300 more you get a better processor, and a retina screen. So now this leads me to an interesting rumor 9to5Mac posted earlier this month:

12-inch MacBook with new design + Retina Display:

Smaller MacBook with entirely new design

Launching in either Q2 or Q3 of 2014

12-inch screen, but as portable as current 11-inch MacBook Air and productive as 13-inch MacBook Air

Higher-resolution display (Retina)

Will “redefine laptop computing” once again just like the current MacBook Air design

Thinner/lighter than MacBook Air, new clamshell structure

Will run on Intel chip, not Apple-based A8 processor

Potentially lower-cost than current Apple notebooks

Could this possibly be the iPad Pro?

let’s not forget the rumors about a larger size iPad. With software on iOS and OS X almost the same. Mac sales slumping and iOS still growing, it’s the perfect time to release a professional device to compete with the Surface Pro. Why else would Apple rename the iPad to the iPad Air?

I don’t know what this device will look like, but my hope is a 12inch touchscreen with a full sized keyboard in some revolutionary form factor. A powerful new chip that maybe Apple and Intel have been teaming up on, all running on iOS

I can dream right?

Be sure to follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/reeddesignss