



On October 22, 2013, Apple held an event announcing new shiny stuff many are eager to have. Apple plans to launch new MacBooks and MacPro, and they discussed the improved iOS X Mavericks, but my focus was on the new iPads.
As usual, Apple touted stats. The app store has over 1,000,000 apps, and customers have downloaded over 64,000,000,000 times. Apple’s app store has generated over $13,000,000,000 for developers. One of the new features of iOS 7 is iTunes Radio; in the short time it has been available, iTunes Radio has 20,000,000 listeners, and people have listened to 1,000,000,000 songs. Apple declared iOS 7 and the new iPhone 5C and 5S as hits; in the first 5 days, iOS 7 was on 200,000,000 iDevices, making it the fastest software launch, and iPhone 5C and 5S sold 9,000,000 units by the end of the launch weekend.
A trend I noticed is the emphasis on making all of Apple’s apps optimized for iOS X and iOS 7 equally because they want people to be able to share work via iCloud. One of the demos was two presenters working on the same project at the same time. The word “share” was uttered multiple times, signaling where Apple wants to take its products. Start on one device and continue on another was one of their major selling points.
Apple also wants people to use iLife and iWork. They’ve made improvements to both groups of apps. All of the apps have been enhanced to work seamlessly with iOS 7. All of the apps have been redesigned with a smoother and easier UI. The biggest move Apple is making with iLife and iWork is offering them for free. Of course, there are in-app purchases. For example, the new version of Garage Band has a session drummer; there are different drummers to choose from, especially if you pay for them.
The part of the event that I focused on is the iPad announcement. As of the event, there are 475,000 iPad-only apps, and 170,000,000 iPads have been sold. Apple unveiled the new iPad, the iPad Air. The iPad Air has a lot of the features in the new iPhones, such as the A7 chip and 64-bit desktop class architecture. The iPad Air has the same screen size, 9.7”, and will have retina display. The new iPad will be lighter and smaller: one pound and 7.5mm thick. Other features include a 5MP camera, 1080 HD video, and faster CPU, graphics, data transfer, and rendering with a 10-hour battery life. The new iPad mini has basically the same features in the iPad Air in a tinier package and will finally have retina display. The iPad Air and new iPad mini will be available in silver, space grey, white, and black, and Apple has made them to be eco-friendly. While the improvements are nice, the developments aren’t big enough for me to change devices since my iPad is only a year old, but if my iPad was older, then I would be buying an iPad Air.
By the end of November, Apple will have both devices available for purchase. The iDevice lineup will include the following (prices are for 16GB with Wi-Fi): $299 iPad mini, $399 iPad mini with retina display, $399 iPad 2, and $499 iPad Air.