“It’s pretty clear the introduction of the iPad in 2010 marked a turning point in the computer industry, one where consumers began to pivot from buying PCs to tablets,” Jamie Lendino reports for PC Magazine.
“As Apple CEO Tim Cook was quick to point out during Tuesday’s press event, the company has sold over 170 million iPads to date,” Lendino reports. “Various analyst reports over the past year have pointed to tablets being on the brink of overtaking PCs in sales.”
“The new A7 processor in Apple’s latest tablets and phones will help that even more. At first glance, this is nothing new. Every processor generation ends up being faster and more energy efficient in some way or another, so it’s rare that a new CPU itself ends up being news outside of hardcore PC enthusiast circles,” Lendino reports. “But the A7 is different. In the iPhone 5s, the A7 is basically overkill; there’s only so much power a device with a 4-inch 1,136-by-640-pixel display needs. On a tablet, though, the chip will come into its own.”
“Apple’s move to 64-bit architecture so early on at least phones, if not tablets, is months ahead of other vendors,” Lendino reports. “As new apps optimized for the A7 begin to appear, you’ll see the rewards in performance. iOS 7 is already 64-bit-aware, and as a result will run more smoothly, with better multitasking, on the iPad Air and Air mini with Retina display… All told, the A7 marks a turning point in the iPad’s evolving history, just as the introduction of the iPad itself was one for the computer industry as a whole.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “Pretty clear” to most now. Not at all clear then – except to a select few for whom it was crystal clear the very day iPad was unveiled.