Apple is relaunching its tablet lineup with iPad Pros with AI capabilities and an iPad Air…

The American giant Apple Inc. on Tuesday unveiled a new iPad Pro with AI and an iPad Air with a larger screen, aiming to revive its own range of tablets whose sales have stagnated in the past two years, Bloomberg and Reuters write.

The company introduced the first redesigned version of 2018 iPad Pro. The new model is thinner, includes a sharper Ultra Retina XDR screen with OLED technology, and has a faster M4 chip that can handle AI tasks. The new iPad Air is similar to the previous version, but with a larger screen size option and the M2 processor, compared to the previous M1.

The new 13-inch iPad Pro is 5.1 millimeters thick, which, according to the company, makes it the thinnest Apple product ever. The larger version is a quarter of a kilogram lighter than its predecessor, while the 11-inch model weighs under a kilogram.

The reveal ends Apple’s longest period of silence on new iPad releases since co-founder Steve Jobs first introduced the device in 2010. The line was previously updated in October 2022, when Apple added a chip faster to iPad Pro and launched a redesigned low-end model.

Apple is looking to pull the iPad out of a severe slump. iPad sales were particularly weak last quarter, when they fell 17% and missed analysts’ estimates, but Apple estimated that iPad revenue would recover in the current period.

The M4 chip, which replaces the M2 in the iPad Pro, is the latest installment in Apple’s homegrown processor line. The central processing unit is 50% faster than the one in the current iPad Pro, and the graphics engine is four times faster. The chip is built on second-generation 3-nanometer technology, Apple said.

The main improvement is the so-called neural engine, which the company says is 60 times faster than its original neural engine from 2017. This will help the iPad Pro handle artificial intelligence tasks right on the device.

The debut of its latest chip in a tablet rather than its Mac laptops is unusual for Apple and suggests it is keen to give app makers a head start on creating AI-related software ahead of its conference annual conference for software developers next month, analysts said. The announcements did little to move Apple shares, which were last up about 0.5 percent after gaining as much as 1.8 percent earlier in the day.

While Microsoft and Alphabet have dived headfirst into artificial intelligence and seen their shares rise to record highs, Apple’s shares are down 5% year to date as the company struggles with weak iPhone demand and while investors wait for it to show how it will capitalize on AI technology.

Apple’s chips have featured a neural engine since 2017, but rivals such as Intel and Qualcomm are introducing competing technologies they call neural processing units, or NPUs, for personal computers. “At this level of performance, the neural engine and M4 is more powerful than any neural processing unit in any AI PC today,” said Tim Millet, vice president of platform architecture at Apple, during the presentation.

Exactly what AI functions might power the new M4 chips won’t become clearer until June 10 at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, where Apple often unveils new capabilities for Siri, its voice assistant, as well as the rest of its operating systems. .

For now, many artificial intelligence features — such as helping to zoom in on a user during a video call — aren’t likely to inspire a wave of iPad upgrades, according to some analysts.

Analysts believe Apple has historically used the iPad line as a place to try new technologies with less risk than larger products like the iPhone or Mac.

The new iPad Pro is available in two sizes: 13 inches and 11 inches. Previous iPad Pro models used Mini LED screens.

Even though sales have declined over the past two years, the iPad has remained the best-selling tablet globally. Nearly 10 million iPads were sold in the first quarter, according to research firm IDC, giving Apple a 32 percent market share. However, unit sales fell by 9% compared to last year, IDC said. Samsung Electronics Co. ranked second, with 22% of the market. Huawei Technologies Co., Lenovo Group Ltd. and Xiaomi Corp. they made up the rest of the first five positions.

In addition to the improved specifications, the iPad Pro has a higher price. The 11-inch model now starts at $999, up from $799 for the previous model. The 13-inch model starts at $1,299, up from a starting price of $1,099. This makes it Apple’s most expensive tablet to date.

The M2 chip in the updated iPad Air comes in both the 11-inch model and the new 13-inch version. This is an upgrade to the M1 chip from 2022 and makes the tablet 50% faster, according to Apple. The 11-inch version continues to start at $599, while the 13-inch model is $799 — making it Apple’s cheapest tablet with a near-laptop-sized screen.

Apple said it made the move to launch a larger iPad Air after finding that about half of iPad Pro buyers chose the larger version of that model.