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Apple has offered free upgrades for life on its operating system and business software and unveiled thinner iPads and faster Mac computers ahead of a competitive holiday shopping season.
The debut of the one-pound iPad Air and MacBook Pro with sharper ‘retina’ display repeats a pattern of recent launches with improvements in existing lines rather than totally new products.
Apple said upgrades to its Mac operating system and iWork software suite, which compete with Microsoft Corp’s Excel, Word and other applications, will now be offered for all MacBooks and Mac computers.
That brings Apple’s model of free system software upgrades on phones and tablets to the computer market, where Apple is still the underdog to Microsoft’s Windows.
Apple may be trying to safeguard its grip on mobile software as Microsoft revs up its Windows-powered Surface Pro, which runs applications, such as Word or Excel, that are the standard for business customers, analysts said.
“We are turning the industry on its ear, but this is not why we’re doing it,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook told media and technology executives at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Centre.
The market is awash in inexpensive tablets running Google Inc’s Android software, but the company may be focused on fending off a threat from the high end.
Apple’s new iPad Air - its full-size tablet - is about 20 per cent thinner than the previous generation of tablets, weighs one pound and starts at $499 (BD188.143). It will go on sale on November 1.
The iPad mini now has a retina high-resolution screen and starts at $399 (BD150), compared with $329 (BD124) for the previous mini model. The two new tablets would face stiff competition, with Microsoft, Nokia and Amazon all plugging rival devices in coming months.
Apple also showed off a new Mac Pro, a premium and high-powered cylindrical desktop computer that will be assembled in US.
