“Apple may indeed have attracted a much broader audience of upgraders for its redesigned 9.7-inch iPad versus last year, according to new early data from mobile app analytics firms,” Darrell Etherington reports for TechCrunch.
“The iPad Air enjoyed somewhere around five times the first weekend adoption of the fourth generation iPad, according to Fiksu, and just under four times that of the iPad mini, which went on sale at the same time as the iPad 4,” Etherington reports. “Fiksu found that three days after the iPad Air went on sale, it was being used by 0.88 percent of those millions using the apps of its clients – which is much better than either the 0.15 percent who were on iPad 4 three days after its launch, or the 0.22 percent who were on iPad mini at the same time.”
Etherington reports, “Backing up Fiksu’s tail of spiking early adoption are numbers from Mixpanel, which reports that the iPad Air is responsible for 1.54 percent of all iPad traffic to its clients’ applications as of this Monday. The iPad 2 and iPad 1 seem to have suffered the biggest concurrent drops in usage percentage, indicating possibly that Apple has managed to draw in a group of upgraders who were long-time holdouts on older devices with the iPad Air.”
Much more in the full article here.
64-bit A7 chip!
I wish it also had the bio-home button. But, that wasn’t the make or brake feature. It is the 64-bit chip and the better low light pictures that will drive the upgrades this quarter.
I will get either the iPad Air or the iPad mini this year. I haven’t decided yet.
For portability and size you can’t beat the mini, for optimum screen size and appropriate read/ work real estate advantage iPad Air makes for a worth while second additional choice.
I got the Air 128 gb, but I use my iPad quite extensively for work. Having said that, I gave it the lying in be movie test this weekend – it is sooooo noticeably lighter, it’s not even funny. I would go for this over the mini if you feel there’s any reason for the extra screen size.
Air for sure.
It’s just a Marketing Gimmick sprinkled with Fairy Dust and Pixie Dust for a double whammie!
Those are two great features but will really be driving adoption are the benefits. Faster, long battery life, lighter, thinner, free Apple apps, the best apps and ecosystem. This is the first significant redesign since the iPad was introduced. I know many who were not considering upgrading simply due to the thinnes and light weight.
Yikes!
Edit: many who were not considering upgrading are going to simply due to the thinnes and light weight.
Yep, and choosing the Air instead of the Mini.
Also has better wifi and speakers btw and much faster,
Funny that. I read from Gene Munster’s blog that the adoption rate of iPad Air was half that of the iPad 3. You can’t really compare the iPad Air launch with the iPad 4. The iPad 4 was a mid-year refresh. You need to compare the lines with the iPad 3 and the iPad Air was half that of the iPad 3.
Sorry, but the buggy iOS 7 makes it a no sale.
Have you used OS 7? I wouldn’t use buggy as the word…. It’s a great improvement from 6 in my opinion.
Are you trapped in some kind of alternate reality? iOS 7 better than iOS 6? What a load of bull crap. Name me one thing that iOS 7 does better than iOS 6. I can name you a dozen things that iOS 6 does better than iOS 7 from a functionality point of view. iOS 7 is nothing but eye candy for tweens. Tweens with a smattering of brains but no appreciation of the deeper nuts and bolts of things.
I’ll name you two things that iOS 7 does worse than iOS 6.
1) Where is the play indicator on the menu bar when you’re playing music on your Music app? Gone.
2) Why is the AirPlay menu selector gone from the Music app? Brainless.
iOS 7 has too many stupid design decisions that overwhelm usability with brainless designer’s whim.
“2) Why is the AirPlay menu selector gone from the Music app? Brainless.”
Because it’s available in ANY app at ANY time from the control center (swipe up from the bottom edge of the screen)
MUCH better, so I don’t have to quit Pandora, open the Apple music player, switch the speaker output, close the music app and re-open Pandora.
“1) Where is the play indicator on the menu bar when you’re playing music on your Music app? Gone.”
Again, controls available in the control center. Agreed, it’s not showing on the home screen, but it’s a swipe away.
You support everything I was saying all along. iOS 7 is more work for zero gain and does not take usability into account. It’s design for design’s sake. Oooh look you can pull up a Control Center shade. How nice! Let’s make everybody use it regardless of need or context.
No, I don’t need that sort of stupidity permeating my iOS devices, thank you very much. I would rather if I am in the Music app, just select the AirPlay button to push the output to a pair of external speakers, whether tethered to my AirPort Express or Apple TV. Why the need to pull up the shade in the Music app? Just another step into oblivion – Ive’s idea of usability sucks as compared to Forstall’s.
And the lack of an onscreen indicator when your music is playing? That’s stupid. I can attach an Apple wireless keyboard to my iPad and when a call comes in, I can hit the pause button on my keyboard and when the call ends, hit the play button again. Onscreen visual confirmation that music has started playing rather than pull up the shade again.
More work for zero gain!
The sound out is a system level setting. It’s stupid to have it only available in one application. Why should I have to leave one app, open another one to change that setting, then open the original?
As for your second complaint, when a call the music player automatically pauses the music, and then resumes playing when the call is completed. Seems a lot simpler to me.
FYI, if you have complaints or suggestions submit them at:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html
Unless you’d rather just bitch.
Leave the guy alone, can’t you see that he can’t think for himself or even politely ask questions to understand the superiority of iOS 7? You could waste your breath, but someone like him that just wants to drivel on is not going to even hear you (i can see him now with fingers in ears yelling “I can’t hear you”)
Mo-run at the least learn to use the ios before you write bogus garbage!
You obviously don’t know anything about either iOS 6 or iOS 7 to make such ignorant remarks.
Let’s face it, iOS 7 is currently buggy. However, now I’m getting used to it I’m beginning to prefer it, and my partner’s iPhone 3GS running 6.1 now looks utterly ancient design-wise.
I’m going for my first iPad this time round. Just can’t make up my mind whether I need/want the 3G/4G or whether the Wifi-only will do. 128GB model for definite though. Might swing by Regent St. on the way home tonight and see what they have in stock 🙂
I like to use my iPad for navigation purposes when I’m abroad. The 4G has a GPS chip inside which makes navigation more accurate. The 128 GB Air with 4G is sold out here but I will get mine in 10 days.
Well I laughed reading these inane remarks so at least i got that from it.
Munster is wrong far more often than he is right which is well known.
iOS 7 is not buggy. I’ve used very version from the beta on iPhone and iPad.
Mid-year refresh to end of year refresh is not relevant.
Lines are entirely anecdotal information and is just a silly thing to say.
Data is gained from facts not what you so desperately seem to need to beleive.
that’s funny! you believe gene monster! HA!
I wonder what the conquest rate was. The iPad Air is an undeniably better choice than any other tablet out there and may convince some of the ‘HeeHaw Demographic’ to admit their previous buying mistake.
Got my 64GB Space Gray one this morning. It really is nice.
But again, the pundit idiots are saying iPad Air was a flop.
This iPad Air is a scorcher and a marvel.
There is no serious iPad user that can be nonchalant about it.
iPad Air – World domination and conquest continues unabated .
Remember the new iPad mini hasn’t been released yet.
I own an iPad 1, 2012 iMac and a new 5s. My IPad still works perfectly, so I have a tough choice: new iPad Air, new Mini, Mac Air or Macbook Pro or something like a new 4k Monitor to work with my iMac. Oddly, right now I’m thinking waiting until the Mac Pro is released to see if Apple will update the monitor choices and then make my decision.
One thing for certain: if I buy a “tablet” or “laptop” it will be an Apple product. 🙂
Apple is making life a real bitch. Go Apple!
Probably looking at replacing 2nd Gen and 3rd Gen iPads with iPad Airs. They are just too nice. Hard to not go all the way, 128GB Cellulars.
I own an original iPad as well, but have a 2009 iMac. The iMac is a Core i7 so it has tons of power to keep me going for at least another 4 years.
I still use my iPad everyday, but I’m definitely going to upgrade this Spring. I just haven’t decided if I want the Air or the mini?
I too have an original model iPad and was wondering what I would upgrade to, but after comparing the iPad Air to an iPad Mini it was a no brainer for me to want an Air. It is a little smaller without the big bezel and so much lighter that I think the Air will give the Mini RD a run for it’s money.
Went by the local Best Buy to see the iPad Air this weekend and they had none in stock and only one floor model, but I got to hold that one and all I can say is “WANT!”
An iPad xmas, indeed! Apple marketing at its best: iPad Air is at home being hankered after by all family members; so, of course, a couple of weeks later Junior is going to get the Mini when it comes out. And neither has an ID button so that keeps the pecking order clear with iP5S owner at the top. Later there’ll be iPad(Pro)s with ID scanners so we start on a different tack. Brilliant! But it’s not just cynical salesmanship; if the products are great, it keeps people happy and engaged in the Apple eco-system.
Got my iPad Air on Friday and loving it more everyday.
I have owned every iPad, with the sole exception of the prematurely released iPad 4, which was basically a slightly faster iPad 3 with a lightning interface!
I also want to report that “burn in” is causing the screen to look much better. Being a new product, initially the text appeared somewhat blurrier than my iPad 3, until the screen on my new iPad Air began to get broken in.
I also want to mention the speed of the MIMO WIFI. There is a noticeable speed difference.
Also, I used to tether my iPhone 5 to my iPad 3. For some strange reason, I could never connect reliably when tethering using WIFI on my iPad 3. I would have to resort to the much more reliable Bluetooth connection. The problem with Bluetooth was that I couldn’t use iMessage and was relegated to sending texts on my iPhone 5 only.
That has changed with the better MIMO WIFI connection on my iPad Air. It hooks up to a WIFI tether just fine, and now I can use iMessage on my iPad Air when tethered with my iPhone 5.
Got a 64g silver Air yesterday and I absolutely love it. I was happy with the iPad 4 but the Air was simply irresistible. Now I can finally use it in my hands more often than using it as a scaled down laptop attached to the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard (which I’m still getting for the Air as well). I really feel the Air pretty much meets or exceeds the expectations we’ve had for the ideal 9.7″ iPad since it was introduced in 2010.
It’ll be really interesting to see how much further Apple can take the concept and this form factor in the future besides making it thinner, lighter and faster. Right now, all I can say is that this is as good as it gets and better than anything else out there. Really happy with this purchase.
My iPad1 with those deep luxurious colors of iOS 5.1.1 served me well. So time to move on. I’ll miss it. Though I wish iOS 7 had an option for that skeuomorphic scheme. Regardless my iPad Air is a dream to use and so fast.