Apple, facing tough competition in the tablet market, on Thursday unveiled a new line-up of iPads that feature its mobile payments system and include the fingerprint unlock used on iPhones.
Apple said its mobile payments system known as Apple Pay would begin operations Monday with more banks and merchants on board.
©Apple -afprelaxnews photo
The California tech giant said its new iPad Air 2 would be thinner than its rivals, with upgraded graphics power and other features.
The new line-up aims to help Apple regain ground in a tablet market increasingly dominated by the rival Android platform.
Apple said its mobile payments system known as Apple Pay, allowing iPhone and iPad users to tap their devices to pay at retailers, would begin operations Monday with more banks and merchants on board.
The iPad Air 2 is 18 percent thinner than its predecessor, Apple said as it unveiled the new device at its Cupertino, California headquarters.
The new design at 6.1 millimeters (0.24 inches) “makes it the world’s thinnest tablet,” the company’s vice president Phil Schiller said.
“It’s so thin you can stack two of them and it will still be thinner than the original iPad.”
The aluminum-body tablet uses a new A8X processor, and boasts up to 10 hours of battery life. It weighs 435 grams (0.96 pounds) and has twin cameras capable of producing high-definition videos.
The new slimmed-down tablet comes after last year’s iPad launch prompted rivals to say they had a slimmer profile.
The new tablet comes with a more powerful processor that delivers livelier graphics, improved battery life and Touch ID, the fingerprint unlock system that Apple introduced last year on its iPhones.
Apple also upgraded its smaller tablet, called the iPad Mini 3, which will also have the Touch ID system.
Pricing will start at $399 for the new iPad mini, and $499 for the iPad Air 2. Apple will cut prices for the current iPad models.
Apple chief Tim Cook said the iPad has been wildly successful, with 225 million units sold in the four years since the initial launch.
But in a tablet market that is cooling, the rival Android platform has been gaining share.
According to Strategy Analytics, Android grabbed 70 percent of the tablet market in the second quarter, to 25 percent for Apple, even if it remains the largest single vendor.
J.P. Gownder at Forrester Research said the new iPad features “maximize the chance that businesses and consumers will be willing to upgrade their old iPads,” but added that “it is disappointing — particularly to enterprise buyers — that there wasn’t a 12.9-inch iPad model.”
– 500 more banks for Apple Pay –
Cook said the Apple Pay system, which has signed up major merchants and banks as well as payment processors like Visa and MasterCard, was gaining participants.
“Just since last month, we have signed another 500 banks,” he said.
“They will be rolling out support later this year and early next year.”
Apple Pay has signed up a range of retailers including Macy’s, Sports Authority, Toys R Us, Staples and Whole Foods Markets.
“Our team has worked incredibly hard to make Apple Pay private and secure, with the simplicity of a single touch of your finger,” said Eddy Cue, Apple senior vice president.
“We continue to add more Apple Pay-ready banks, credit card companies and merchants, and think our users will love paying with Apple Pay.”
Apple also announced its OS X desktop operating system called Yosemite was available as a free upgrade for users of Mac computers.
The new system includes a feature called “handoff” to allow people to switch among Apple devices and continue a task such as writing emails.
On the desktop side, Apple introduced an iMac computer with a 27-inch high-resolution Retina display, and an upgraded Mac mini with a lower starting price.