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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Features/  Does the iPad Pro signal the end for MacBook Air?
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Does the iPad Pro signal the end for MacBook Air?

The big screen iPad is being pitched as a laptop replacement. And the first casualty will be its elder MacBook sibling

The iPad Pro gets a Smart Keyboard accessory (you buy it separately for $169), which makes it more of a work device than one meant for only entertainment needs. Photo: BloombergPremium
The iPad Pro gets a Smart Keyboard accessory (you buy it separately for $169), which makes it more of a work device than one meant for only entertainment needs. Photo: Bloomberg

The sales of the iPad and the iPad Mini have shrunk in the past two quarters. Which is why, perhaps, it became critical for Apple to refresh the entire idea of the tablet.

The iPad Pro, as it is called, features a 12.9-inch Retina display with a very powerful specification sheet—the latest A9X processor, 2,732 x 2,048 pixel display resolution, support for more 4G LTE networks and claimed 10-hour battery life. In terms of design, the aesthetics remain very similar to the Apple iPad Air.

In a tablet market where there aren’t many big-screen devices, the iPad Pro goes head on against Samsung’s Galaxy Note Pro (Android) and Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 (Windows). At 6.9mm thickness, the iPad Pro is thinner than the two tablets, which measure 7.95mm and 9.14mm, respectively. At 713gm, it is lighter too, as compared with 750gm and 790gm, respectively. And while the Galaxy Note Pro’s 12.2-inch screen was the biggest among tablets now, Apple has bettered that, too.

But, is Apple actually taking on the rival tablets or eyeing this as a replacement for the ageing MacBook Air line-up? We think the latter seems more likely.

At 12.9 inches, the screen is bigger than the MacBook Air 11 and pretty much at par with the MacBook Air 13. The iPad Pro also gets a Smart Keyboard accessory (you buy it separately for $169), which makes it more of a work device than one meant for only entertainment needs—the new iPad Mini 4 and the iPad Air take care of that requirement.

The new A9X processor has doubled the memory bandwidth compared with the processor used in the iPad Air, and the graphics performance is 360 times faster—yes, 360 times. That pretty much puts the iPad Pro at par with most desktops, and surpasses most laptops and portables being sold globally at the moment—Apple drilled this point by mentioning that the iPad Pro is faster than 90% of the portable PCs shipped in the last 12 months. They didn’t specifically mention the MacBook Air while making the comparison, but we suspect the Pro is significantly faster than that too.

Then there is the stylus, known as the Apple Pencil. Samsung has had the S-Pen stylus for its big screen phones and tablets for many years now, and we aren’t entirely sure if anyone really uses it, apart from those who work on graphics.

Last year, a Microsoft representative told us that we will soon start to see the “new Microsoft", which is happy to offer its software and services to users on rival platforms. The fact that Microsoft was a part of the iPad Pro announcement suggests that the Redmond-based company is betting big on the iOS versions of the Office suite. And that will be music to the ears for those who want to switch to the iPad for productivity usages.

Finally, the price matters. The iPad Pro costs $799 (32GB, Wi-Fi), $949 (128GB, Wi-Fi), and $1,049 (128GB, Wi-Fi + Cellular). This roughly works out to a starting price of around 53,000, give or take a few for local taxes etc. In comparison, the smaller of the two MacBook Air variants, the 11-inch, starts at 65,900. Apple has refrained from updating the Air with the Retina display in the past couple of models, and instead launched the new thin and light MacBook in the meantime.

The way we see it, Apple wants more users to consider the potential cost-saving with the new iPad Pro, instead of the MacBook Air, as well as the more powerful performance and, perhaps, a unique user experience. It pretty much offers the same form factor, with the added convenience of a tablet. Also, Android- and Windows-based convertible devices were aiming for the enterprise market, and Apple didn’t want to miss out on that.

But the real question is, can iOS be as good as the Mac OS X when it comes to multi-tasking? That is something we’ll be able to answer only once the iOS 9 update gets released next week. All variables aside, one thing is clear, the MacBook Air is on its way out.

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Published: 10 Sep 2015, 11:12 AM IST
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