iPad 5 and iPad Mini 2: launch day coverage
iPad sales going down the tubes
Not the kind of coverage Apple will want on launch day of its new and, supposedly, big Christmas selling, tablets. Business Insider's Henry Blodget has visualised iPad sales from June 2011 to now and the graph isn't pretty.
Sales dropped 14% in one year to 15m units in a market forecast to grow 50% this year. Granted, Apple virtually created the market, so its market share was bound to drop. But raw sales numbers dropping too Apple will be hoping that the new iPads turn this around.
The larger problem, arguably, is that Apple is trying to maintain premium pricing in a market in which competitors are increasingly selling high-quality iPad alternatives for significantly lower prices
The company's profit margin is so high, and this is producing so much profit, that investors have made it one of the most valuable tech companies in the world. If Apple sacrifices its profit margin and profit to increase its mobile platform market share, investors will probably scream. (It is a slowdown in sales and drop in profits, after all, that has clobbered the stock over the past year.) If, on the other hand, Apple maximises its current profit at the expense of market share, as it appears to be doing, this will likely weaken the company's market position long-term
The right answer is for Apple to reinvest more of its gigantic profits by reducing the prices of its iPads and iPhones.
After retina, is 3D next
It seems increasingly likely that, after Tuesday's event, the entirety of Apple's mobile device line-up will have retina displays. In just over three years, the company will have moved all its iPhones, iPads and iPod touches to the high-resolution screens.
But, Charles Arthur asks, what next
Given how keen Apple is to build its Chinese business, and how much it wants to push film viewing on the iPad, and how many films now come with a 3D version, you could tease out a thread of logic which says that it would gain a significant commercial advantage if it could come up with a screen able to display 3D films. How would that be done Certainly not with glasses (they're a pain, easily lost or broken, expensive, and dorky), but perhaps with some sort of lenticular method.
Likely It's hard to tell.
Named after a deadly surf break, is OS X Mavericks really that lethal
Apple's OS X Mavericks is named after a break at Half Moon Bay, California.
Apple's OS X Mavericks is named after a break at Half Moon Bay, California. Photograph: Frans Lanting/Getty Images/Mint Images
For its latest iteration of its Mac computer operating system, Apple has ditched its big cat naming scheme leaving OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion" as the last of the kitties. Instead, Apple named OS X 10.9 "Mavericks," which might conjure up images of a jet-washed Tom Cruise, but is actually named after a Californian surf spot with a deadly reputation, as Alex Hern explains:
Mavericks is regarded as one of North America's most dangerous surf breaks. In 1994, it became one of the few locations to kill a professional surfer when Hawaiian big wave rider Mark Foo wiped out. In 2011, Mavericks claimed another life when Sion Milosky drowned.
Just the month before, Milosky had won the North Shore underground surfer of the year, leading Surfing Magazine to write well be watching Si to see where this momentum takes him. He used some of his $25,000 prize money to pay for the trip to Mavericks.
Even among surfing's select group of big-wave riders maybe 100 in the world only a handful will take on the winter swells at Mavericks, where waves can reach 80 feet. Those that do need specialist equipment helmets, sometimes lifejackets, jetski tow-ins and emergency backup. None of which makes for a comfortable marketing metaphor with a mainstream piece of computer software.
Apple's OS X Mavericks is a move against the open web
OS X Mavericks takes one step closer to a siloed app existence following the lead of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS.
OS X Mavericks takes one step closer to a siloed app existence, following the lead of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS.
With OS X Mavericks, Apple is moving more and more towards the app model kickstarted by the rise of app-based smartphone operating systems like Android and Apple's own iOS.
Instead of relying on the browser to provide services like maps, Apple is launching the desktop equivalent of its Apple Maps app from the iPhone - a paradigm shift that could launch a move against the open web and towards the siloed information clustering of isolated applications.
Alex Hern asks, is appification necessarily a bad thing
What Apple's release of OS X Mavericks hints at is more of the company's software strategy. And what it says is that Apple has looked at the progress of its closed world of iPhone apps - and it likes what it sees.
While there are advantages to switching from the web to an app, though, there remain trade-offs.
Publishers are sometimes spooked by some by the open web's ability to block adverts, or that sites don't stop the public copying and pasting content. But those 'problems' are advantages for the public.
The debate about whether information is better online or siloed away in apps has gone quiet when it comes to mobile devices; the two exist in an uneasy truce, with most publishers grudgingly offering both options.
Will the iPad go gold or not
Following the launch of the gold iPhone 5S, and its apparent popularity with iPhone buyers, a gold-coloured new iPad is certainly a possibility.
Supposed leaks of back shells for the iPad originally indicated that Apple would be moving the iPad to its new iPhone 5S-like "space grey" and silver colour scheme, replacing the current aluminium-only back colour option of the iPad 4 and iPad mini.
Recent supply chain predictions from research firm KGI indicate, however, that a gold iPad will not appear at this time, contradicting leaks of an alleged gold iPad mini, complete with Touch ID home button ring, which appeared on Tuesday from China.
Alleged gold iPad mini leak from China.
Alleged gold iPad mini leak from China. Photograph: Weibo
Given the apparent success of the golden iPhone 5S, especially in China where Apple is hoping to make significant inroads, a gold iPad could still be on the cards even if not at this juncture.
The changing landscape
The fifth generation iPad is launching in a very different media landscape to that of the first.
Data from Ipsos MediaCT shows the rapid change in how we use and consume music, movies and television. Since 2011, the proportion of Britons who have bought a CD in the last six months has dropped from 37% to 28%, while the proportion who have used free legal streaming has doubled from 7% to 14%. (The number of us who are using what is euphemistically termed "unofficial digital" piracy has stayed flat at 7%).
Similarly, since the autumn of 2010, the proportion who have bought a DVD or Blu-ray disk has dropped from 40% to 28%, while those paying for digital downloads has gone from 7% to 11%. Again, piracy has stayed constant at 6%.
The percentage who use the internet for social networking has increased from 35% to 50% and 14% of those visiting social networking sites are now doing so on a tablet device.
Even since spring of 2012, the proportion of Brits who own a tablet has rocketed. Back then, a tenth of the country had a tablet in the household, and four-fifths of them were iPads. Now, 30% of the country has a tablet, and a little under two-thirds of those are iPads. Apple's device remains dominant, but that lead is shrinking.
And, of course, when the iPad was launched, it had very few true competitors (Although, as Bill Gates likes to point out, he was showing off tablet PCs in 2001). Now, you can't shake a stick for a company offering a device which is cheaper and with better tech specs. Apple will say its the experience which they can't match but is that good enough
