“Apple revved up the iPad brand Thursday with a new iPad Air 2 that is just 6.1 mm thick,” Elizabeth Weise reports for USA Today. “‘It is the thinnest iPad we have ever made,’ said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing. The new iPad Air 2 is so thin that two stacked on top of one and other are still thinner than the original iPad, said Schiller.”
“By keeping the previous iPad models in the running in addition to the newer, thinner iPads, Apple has added tablets at different price points. That creates a broader market, said Ben Bajarin, principal analyst with Creative Strategies, a Silicon Valley consulting firm,” Weise reports. “‘They can use this to fight those (iPad sales) trend lines that are trending down,’ he said.”
“The bottom end of the iPad range has now been extended down to $250 for the original iPad Mini, giving a range of iPads from $250 to around $1000. ‘There’s something for almost everyone here,’ said Jan Dawson, an analyst with Jackdaw Research,” Weise reports. “‘Apple adds about eight to ten million new iPad customers each quarter, and the new iPads should help keep that momentum going, while expanding the addressable market somewhat at the bottom end,’ Dawson said.”
“The addition of the Touch ID fingerprint identification technology, previously only available on the iPhone, to the new iPads will be a major perk for large businesses, he said,” Weise reports. “More and more companies are using iPads as work tools, but security is important to them. ‘Everyone we talked to wanted the Touch ID for security,’ Bajarin said.”
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