APPLE targets REMOTE WORKERS with new iPad Pro, Slim iMacs Using Own Chips

As a cater to work from home, Apple Inc has announced a line of slim iMac computers and iPads that uses its own processors and provides a high-quality video.

The iMac will start at $1,299 and AirTags worth $29 each has been launched, and both will be available from April 30. AirTags are to find the lost items. The announcement had no major surprises and this wide variety of announcements had been telegraphed before the presentation.

The new iMac will use an Apple designed central processor unit, and it comes in seven colours with a 24-inch display, 11.5 mm thickness, with a high-quality front facing camera and microphone array. The new iPad Pros uses the same M1 chip as its computers rather than a beefed-up version of its iPhone chips and this blurs the line between mobile devices and computers, as per Ben Bajarin. The expansion of Apple’s M1 chips into the iPad Pro continues a migration away from longtime partner Intel.  It has additional ports for connecting monitors and 5G connectivity and also encroaches on gaming systems. Apple said that controllers from Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox would work with the iPad Pro.

 Apple in November announced three new computers would use an in-house processor. It also announced about Apple TV set top box with a better colour output and a faster processor chip and podcast subscription services that will compete with rival Spotify. Apple shares have risen nearly 95% over the past year, faster than the 63% rise in the Nasdaq Composite Index, thanks to a record $274.5 billion in sales for fiscal 2020 as consumers stocked up on electronics during the pandemic. Apple has said it subjects all apps, including its own, to the same App Store review rules. The AirTag announcement could result in a new round of complaints to lawmakers that Apple is hurting smaller rivals. Tile, a private company that has sold a competing tracker for nearly a decade, last year testified before the U.S. House of Representatives that Apple’s App Store rules had made it harder to use Tile’s products and will be called before the U.S. Senate to testify on Wednesday.

Ben Bajarin, principal analyst for consumer market intelligence at Creative Strategies said before the launch that the Pro iPads are not the volume sellers, but they blur the line between Mac and iPad. How Apple differentiates between the iPad Pro and the Mac will be very interesting to watch. Bob O’Donnell, head of TECHnalysis Research, said he does not believe the trackers will become a big business on their own, since Apple was late to the product, but Bajarin said the trackers could keep people tied to their iPhones to keep track of keys and wallets and added that “The more you buy into just one hardware product, the less likely it is you’ll ever leave”.