At 10 pm Beijing time on May 7th, Apple held an online "Let's Go" special event (Spring New Product Launch), which immediately topped the Weibo hot search list. The price of the new product is a key concern for the public, and many consumers have expressed that although the new iPad has strong performance, the price is too expensive (the top of the line iPad Pro is as high as 22499 yuan), and it is difficult to experience high-end functions in daily use, which is not suitable for the general public.
It is worth mentioning that Apple's AI ecosystem is gradually emerging. At this press conference, Apple showcased its AI interaction capabilities in fields such as film manufacturing through the iPad ecosystem, launching the new Final Cut Pro 2 and the new Final Cut Camera shooting software.
According to the latest report released by market research firm Canalys, the overall tablet market sales have also been declining. Under the wave of generative artificial intelligence represented by big models, Apple's current progress on AI phones and AIPCs seems to be slightly behind other manufacturers. Faced with more intense market competition, the launch of the new AI+iPad may be able to change the sluggish sales growth of Apple's iPad.
The thinnest iPad in history: The latest m4 chip was first released, and the top of the line iPad Pro was as high as 22499 yuan
The protagonist of this new product launch event is the new iPad, which has been updated with new iPad Pro, new iPad Air, and new Apple Pencil Pro. The new iPad Air comes in two versions, 11 inch and 13 inch, with an M2 chip, providing a 50% performance improvement over the previous generation M1.
In terms of price, with a starting memory of 128GB, the iPad Air is priced at 11 inches 4799 yuan and 13 inches 6499 yuan. In terms of memory, Apple has also launched the 1TB version of the iPad air for the first time.
And the new iPad Pro is the Rocket product in this conference, which was called "the iPad of dreams" by Apple. In the press conference, Apple mentioned many times that the new iPad Pro can let users experience the Mac like functional experience.
According to a reporter from Nandouwan Finance News, the iPad Pro has directly upgraded the previous generation M2 chip to the M4 chip, while Apple's latest MacBook laptop is still in the M3 chip stage. According to the official video, the CPU of the M4 chip is 50% faster than M2, the GPU is 4 times stronger than M2, and it can perform 38 trillion calculations per second. It also includes AI functionality, making it the strongest chip currently carried by Apple products.
In addition, the new iPad Pro also features a dual layer OLED screen and matte display for the first time. The exterior design will adopt a thinner shell and narrower border, with a thickness of only 5.1mm, making it the thinnest iPad in history. It is worth noting that the new iPad Pro is also compatible with the previous generation Magic Keyboard, attracting users of the previous generation iPad Pro to update.
In terms of price, based on the starting memory of 256, the 11 inch iPad Pro is priced at 8999 yuan, while the 13 inch version is priced as high as 11499 yuan. Upgrading to the 512 version requires an additional 1700 yuan. If you want to experience the top of the line iPad Pro, it will cost up to 22499 yuan, which is also why many netizens say that the new iPad is too expensive.
The price of the new generation Apple Pencil Pro appears approachable, with a release price of only 999, which is the same as the previous generation Apple Pencil 2. It is worth noting that the App Pencil Pro supports both iPad Pro and the new iPad Air, and is no longer an exclusive super accessory for Pro products. It may also support Vision Pro and is expected to be paired with the VisionOS 2.0 system.
Apple AI ecosystem has surfaced
The AI feature is the biggest highlight of Apple's Logic Pro update. Brent Chiu Watson, Senior Director of Global Product Marketing for Apple Professional App, stated that "Logic Pro has received multiple new updates based on AI, which complement the peak performance of iPad, Mac, and M-series Apple chips, allowing creative experts to enjoy a first-class music creation experience in the industry." With advanced AI and sampling technology, users can easily form a personal accompaniment band driven by AI through the built-in accompaniment musicians in the Logic Pro.
At this press conference, Apple showcased its AI interaction capabilities in fields such as film manufacturing through the iPad ecosystem, launching the new Final Cut Pro 2 and the new Final Cut Camera shooting software. The iPad version of the Final Cut Pro 2 comes with external hard drive project support and real-time multi camera function. It can complete multi angle recording at once with the new Final Cut Camera app on iPhone and iPad, supporting real-time multi camera shooting. Users can connect up to four shooting devices simultaneously and preview all images in one place, greatly accelerating the shooting speed.
Users can also directly adjust the settings of each real-time stand in the iPad Final Cut Pro 2, and easily adjust the exposure, focus, zoom and other parameters. Clippable preview clips will be immediately transferred to the iPad Final Cut Pro, and replaced with full resolution files in the background, facilitating users to smoothly transition from shooting to editing. It is worth noting that the Final Cut Camera app is a free software, and some industry insiders have suggested that it may be the cheapest professional device to complete multi camera shooting. Some netizens have also expressed that they have been looking forward to this feature for a long time.
There are many hidden trends in Apple's artificial intelligence in these new software, and the Mac version of Final Cut Pro 10.8 has introduced a new AI feature. Editors can quickly customize the style of videos or photos with just one click, and can more easily re schedule and adjust visual elements.
Can Apple's New AI+iPad Save the Downward Trend of Tablet Business
On the eve of the new product launch event, Apple released its second quarter financial report for the 2024 fiscal year, showing a revenue of $90.8 billion, a 4% decrease from $94.8 billion in the same period last year. In Greater China, Apple's revenue was $16.37 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 8.1%. This quarter, Apple's net profit was $23.6 billion, a 2% decrease from $24.1 billion in the same period last year. Earnings per share was $1.53, slightly higher than the same period last year's $1.52.
Despite Apple's service revenue reaching a historic quarterly record of $23.9 billion, both iPhone and iPad revenue have shown a significant downward trend.
According to the latest report released by market research firm Canalys, the overall tablet market sales have also been declining. Under the wave of generative artificial intelligence represented by big models, Apple's current progress on AI phones and AIPCs seems to be slightly behind other manufacturers. Faced with more intense market competition, the launch of the new AI+iPad may be able to change the sluggish sales growth of Apple's iPad.
It is worth noting that unlike the previous spring product launch event held in March, this new product launch event was chosen to be held one month before Apple's annual developer conference WWDC 24. Cook stated at the end of the new product launch event that this was Apple's warm-up for the upcoming WWDC developer conference.
At this point, Apple's AI ecosystem is gradually emerging. According to foreign media reports, in order to comply with the increasingly popular industry trend of generative AI, Apple is continuously promoting the research and development of its own generative AI technology. According to insiders, Apple's self-developed data center AI chip project, codenamed "ACDC", has been brewing for several years.
According to Apple Insider on May 3rd, Apple is planning to introduce a series of AI enhancements to its system components, among which Safari, Messages, Mail, Spotlight Search, and Siri will be the first applications to accept AI upgrades. Apple has been exploring offline response generation software for over a year, and the specific product is likely to make its debut at the World Developers Conference (WWDC) next month.
Apple is also expected to update the latest research results on artificial intelligence at the conference, which may involve speech recognition, image processing, intelligent recommendations, and other aspects. In particular, the updates to Siri and Safari may greatly improve the convenience and efficiency of users when using Apple products, bringing users a more intelligent and personalized experience. This measure may further enhance the iPad's position in user life.