Apple announced the iPad 4 at a press conference on Tuesday along with the new iPad Mini. However, reports suggest that reasons for the new launches are not because Apple just wanted to.
The fourth-generation iPad comes just a little before seven months after the iPad 3.
The iPad 4 comes with the same 9.7-inch Retina display but with an A6X processor, which is twice as fast as A5, and a 1024 x 768 resolution. It has the next generation ISP with 10 hours of battery life and a FaceTime HD camera with 720p. It has WiFi 802.11n, which is twice as fast, and also comes with the new lightening dock connector and enhanced LTE. It sells for $499 for the 16 GB version.
The iPad Mini has a 7.9-inch screen and run on Apple's new iOS 6 software. It is 23 percent thinner than the fourth-generation iPad, according to USA Today. It has a display screen resolution of 1,024 x 768 and has a 35 percent larger display area than the Google Nexus 7, and is 67 percent larger to surf the Web. It has a A5 dual-core chip, 5 megapixel iSight camera on the rear of the tablet which can shoot 1080p HD video, 4G LTE and Wi-Fi support as well as the new Lightning connector available on the iPhone 5. It comes with a FaceTime HD camera and 10 hours of battery life. It has WiFi that is twice as fast as previous generation iPads. It will sell for $329 for the 16GB model.
According to ZDNet writer Ben Woods, the two new launches could "muddy the waters for potential Apple tablet buyers."
"What's more interesting is the way in which Apple now seems to be failing to lead the market in the way it once did, and is instead reacting to developments - rather than driving them," Woods said. He said that a fast processor and higher res screen is nice, but its only evolutionary and not revolutionary.
"Apple's plan wasn't to introduce a 7.x-inch tablet; it only did it once it saw just how successful the form factor could be with the likes of the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 - and more importantly how many potential sales it was missing out on."
Woods goes on to say that if Apple were comfortable in their sales, they wouldn't introduce an unexpected revamp just seven months after the latest launch. It's not like iPad sales are falling.
"Whatever the reason, to me it doesn't smack of confidence, which isn't a position we're used to seeing Apple in," Woods concluded.
CNET said something similar, with Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty saying that the iPad 3 is a "stale" product and sales were not as high as expected, and also because of "accelerated growth" relying on experience in pushing out a new iPad.
Chicago Tribune reported that Amazon's Kindle and Google's Nexus 7 "grabbed a chunk of the lower end of the tablet market and proved demand for a pocket-sized slate exists. That has forced Apple into a space it has avoided and at times derided, analysts say."
"Apple sensed early that they had a real winner with the iPad and that has proven to be correct," said Lars Albright, co-founder of mobile advertising startup SessionM and a former Apple ad executive. ""They have a large market share, and to protect that market share they have got to be innovative."
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