Updated Oct. 22, 2013 9:24 p.m. ET
Apple CEO Tim Cook introduced the new iPad Air on Tuesday. Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO— Apple Inc. AAPL -0.29% Apple Inc. U.S.: Nasdaq [SUP]$[/SUP]519.87 -1.49 -0.29% Oct. 22, 2013 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 18.89M U.S.: Nasdaq [SUP]$[/SUP]521.00 +1.13 +0.22% Oct. 22, 2013 7:59 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 183,905 P/E Ratio 12.88 Market Cap $473.66 Billion Dividend Yield 2.35% Rev. per Employee $2,225,220 10/22/13 Apple Unveils New iPads 10/22/13 T-Mobile Set to Support Apple'... 10/22/13 iPad Mini gets heavier? More quote details and news » AAPL in
Your Value Your Change Short position 's answer to the increasingly cutthroat tablet-computer market: more product choices and free software.
At an event here Tuesday, Apple showed off a new full-size tablet—now called iPad Air—that is thinner and slimmed down to one pound. It also revealed an updated iPad Mini with a faster processor and a sharper display.
[h=4]Apple's Event[/h]
Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off Tuesday's event in San Francisco with an update on recent performance. Apple held its second gathering in as many months on Tuesday, making good on its usual fall event to showcase new products ahead of the holiday. REUTERS
WSJ's Ian Sherr reports via WorldStream from Tuesday's Apple Event where the company unveiled new iPads, the new MacPro, and a new software policy.
Just as important, Apple's new holiday lineup lowers the entry price for the cheapest iPads to below $300 for the first time. Apple said it will sell a range of tablets starting with last year's iPad Mini for $299, up to the new iPad Air, which starts at $499. That brings Apple closer in line with competitors like Amazon.com Inc., AMZN +1.87% Amazon.com Inc. U.S.: Nasdaq [SUP]$[/SUP]332.54 +6.10 +1.87% Oct. 22, 2013 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 3.89M U.S.: Nasdaq [SUP]$[/SUP]332.75 +0.21 +0.06% Oct. 22, 2013 7:51 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 49,595 P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap $149.15 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee $756,199 10/22/13 Amazon, eBay Shake Up Shipping... 10/22/13 EU Plans Panel on How to Tax I... 10/21/13 Apple's Long Road to Break Eve... More quote details and news » AMZN in Your Value Your Change Short position who have pushed tablet prices down as far as $229.
Apple also said it would offer for free access to its iWork productivity suite, which competes with Microsoft Corp.'s MSFT -1.17% Microsoft Corp. U.S.: Nasdaq [SUP]$[/SUP]34.58 -0.41 -1.17% Oct. 22, 2013 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 39.75M U.S.: Nasdaq [SUP]$[/SUP]34.60 +0.02 +0.06% Oct. 22, 2013 7:55 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 692,791 P/E Ratio 13.30 Market Cap $292.54 Billion Dividend Yield 3.24% Rev. per Employee $784,384 10/22/13 Microsoft Fixes Windows Downlo... 10/22/13 Daniel Loeb's Third Point Buys... 10/22/13 Why Now for Tablets and Phable... More quote details and news » MSFT in Your Value Your Change Short position Office, and iLife photo, movie and music making apps for customers buying new devices. The company used to charge between $4.99 and $9.99 for each program.
Following the announcements, Apple's Chief Executive Tim Cook said the changes amounted to "the biggest iPad announcement ever, by a large margin."
Improved technical specs, coupled with free software, may help Apple appeal to more customers, particularly students and small businesses, said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. "You're not paying extra money for the brand, you're getting real technology to back it up," he said.
The new iPads and changing software strategy come at a critical time for the Cupertino, Calif., gadget maker. For the first time, Apple sold fewer iPads in the three months ended in June than the same period a year earlier. Rivals including South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. 005930.SE 0.00% Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. S. Korea: KRX [SUP]KRW[/SUP]1455000 0 0.00% Oct. 23, 2013 10:11 am Volume : 28,480 P/E Ratio 7.88 Market Cap KRW237771.83 Billion Dividend Yield 0.07% Rev. per Employee N/A 10/22/13 Why Now for Tablets and Phable... 10/22/13 In the Abu Dhabi Desert, Excit... 10/21/13 HTC's Chairwoman Takes Additio... More quote details and news » 005930.SE in Your Value Your Change Short position and Amazon are eroding Apple's one-time dominance of the tablet market.
[h=4]Tablet Wars[/h]Consumers have a bevy of new and upgraded tablets to choose from to watch movies and television shows, listen to music, read books and more. See how some of the more popular tablets stack up
[h=4]Decoding the Phone-Plan Puzzle[/h]
Select the image to go to the calculator.
Apple introduced two new iPads, the Air and the Mini, to bolster the company's position in an increasingly competitive tablet-computer market. Brian Fitzgerald has details on the News Hub. Photo: Apple.
Research firm Gartner expects Apple's share of the tablet market to fall below 50% this year, down from 54% last year and 65% in 2011. Tablets powered by Google Inc. GOOG +0.37% Google Inc. Cl A U.S.: Nasdaq [SUP]$[/SUP]1007.00 +3.70 +0.37% Oct. 22, 2013 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 2.18M U.S.: Nasdaq [SUP]$[/SUP]1007.70 +0.70 +0.07% Oct. 22, 2013 7:39 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): P/E Ratio 28.52 Market Cap $336.87 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee $1,060,120 10/22/13 EU Plans Panel on How to Tax I... 10/22/13 The Morning Download: Tablets ... 10/20/13 Might Google Have a Sly Motive... More quote details and news » GOOG in Your Value Your Change Short position 's Android software are expected to hit as much as 50% of the market this year, up from about 45% last year.
Nokia Corp. NOK +2.80% Nokia Corp. ADS U.S.: NYSE [SUP]$[/SUP]7.35 +0.20 +2.80% Oct. 22, 2013 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 65.28M U.S.: NYSE [SUP]$[/SUP]7.37 +0.02 +0.27% Oct. 22, 2013 7:57 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap $27.07 Billion Dividend Yield 3.44% Rev. per Employee $355,276 10/22/13 Daniel Loeb's Third Point Buys... More quote details and news » NOK in Your Value Your Change Short position unveiled its first tablet computer Tuesday. Also Tuesday, Microsoft, which plans to acquire Nokia's mobile-computing business, put the second version of its Surface tablet on sale.
Google, Sony Corp. 6758.TO -0.31% Sony Corp. Japan: Tokyo [SUP]¥[/SUP]1929 -6 -0.31% Oct. 23, 2013 10:11 am Volume : 2.22M P/E Ratio 27.48 Market Cap ¥1995.22 Billion Dividend Yield 1.30% Rev. per Employee ¥47,835,800 10/15/13 A Truce in the Videogame Wars 10/13/13 'Gravity' Continues to Pull In... 10/11/13 Sony Eyes Wearables as Real Es... More quote details and news » 6758.TO in Your Value Your Change Short position and Asian manufacturers including Asustek Computer Inc. 2357.TW -4.01% ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Taiwan [SUP]NT$[/SUP]215.50 -9.00 -4.01% Oct. 23, 2013 9:11 am Volume : 3.62M P/E Ratio 6.93 Market Cap NT$164.10 Billion Dividend Yield 8.90% Rev. per Employee NT$18,073,500 08/09/13 PC Makers's Forecasts Dim as M... 08/07/13 Taiwan Brand Builders Add Holl... 07/25/13 Google Partnership Paying Off ... More quote details and news » 2357.TW in Your Value Your Change Short position and Lenovo Group Ltd. 0992.HK +0.98% Lenovo Group Ltd. Hong Kong [SUP]$[/SUP]8.26 +0.08 +0.98% Oct. 22, 2013 4:01 pm Volume : 31.04M P/E Ratio 16.46 Market Cap $85.02 Billion Dividend Yield 3.39% Rev. per Employee $7,672,870 10/18/13 Canada Likely to Seek Lenovo P... 10/18/13 A Lenovo-BlackBerry Deal Would... 10/18/13 A Lenovo-BlackBerry Deal Would... More quote details and news » 0992.HK in Your Value Your Change Short position are pushing tablets of their own.
Apple's answer this year was to fix complaints about its current lineup, adding in its latest processor, the A7, to the new devices, making the iPad lighter and giving the iPad Mini a sharper screen.
An attendee at Apple's event on Tuesday looks at the redesigned Mac Pro computers, due out in December. Getty Images
The iPad Air goes on sale in the U.S. and a host of other countries, including China, on Nov. 1. The new iPad Mini will go on sale later in November, the company said.
"I can't think of another product that's come so far, so fast," Mr. Cook said during the event, noting that Apple has sold more than 170 million iPads.
One bright spot for the company is that even as it loses market share, its customers remain the heaviest users of tablets.
Mobile-advertising firm Chitika Inc. says 84.3% of the website traffic from tablets that it analyzed in June came from iPads. Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet ranked second, with 5.7% of Web traffic, followed by Samsung's Galaxy tablets, with 4.2%. Usage of the iPad increased from May to June, Chitika said, while the others declined.
"Regardless of what you might hear or read about how many are sold or activated, iPad is used more than any of the rest," Mr. Cook said, adding that the iPad is used four times more than competitors.
Among other announcements, Apple said a new version of its computer operating system, OS X Mavericks, along with updates to 20 more of its apps, would be available for existing customers to download free immediately. In the past, Apple has typically charged for major software updates, particularly for its OS X operating system.
With the free software approach, "we are turning the industry on its ear," Mr. Cook said.
Apple also unveiled a slate of new computers. Its latest MacBook Pro laptop computers will start at a price of $1,299, about $200 less than past models, while its high-end Mac Pro desktop computer will start at $2,999.
—Greg Bensinger contributed to this article.
Write to Ian Sherr at [email protected] and Greg Bensinger at [email protected]
Apple CEO Tim Cook introduced the new iPad Air on Tuesday. Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO— Apple Inc. AAPL -0.29% Apple Inc. U.S.: Nasdaq [SUP]$[/SUP]519.87 -1.49 -0.29% Oct. 22, 2013 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 18.89M U.S.: Nasdaq [SUP]$[/SUP]521.00 +1.13 +0.22% Oct. 22, 2013 7:59 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 183,905 P/E Ratio 12.88 Market Cap $473.66 Billion Dividend Yield 2.35% Rev. per Employee $2,225,220 10/22/13 Apple Unveils New iPads 10/22/13 T-Mobile Set to Support Apple'... 10/22/13 iPad Mini gets heavier? More quote details and news » AAPL in
Your Value Your Change Short position 's answer to the increasingly cutthroat tablet-computer market: more product choices and free software.At an event here Tuesday, Apple showed off a new full-size tablet—now called iPad Air—that is thinner and slimmed down to one pound. It also revealed an updated iPad Mini with a faster processor and a sharper display.
[h=4]Apple's Event[/h]
Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off Tuesday's event in San Francisco with an update on recent performance. Apple held its second gathering in as many months on Tuesday, making good on its usual fall event to showcase new products ahead of the holiday. REUTERS
WSJ's Ian Sherr reports via WorldStream from Tuesday's Apple Event where the company unveiled new iPads, the new MacPro, and a new software policy.
Just as important, Apple's new holiday lineup lowers the entry price for the cheapest iPads to below $300 for the first time. Apple said it will sell a range of tablets starting with last year's iPad Mini for $299, up to the new iPad Air, which starts at $499. That brings Apple closer in line with competitors like Amazon.com Inc., AMZN +1.87% Amazon.com Inc. U.S.: Nasdaq [SUP]$[/SUP]332.54 +6.10 +1.87% Oct. 22, 2013 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 3.89M U.S.: Nasdaq [SUP]$[/SUP]332.75 +0.21 +0.06% Oct. 22, 2013 7:51 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 49,595 P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap $149.15 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee $756,199 10/22/13 Amazon, eBay Shake Up Shipping... 10/22/13 EU Plans Panel on How to Tax I... 10/21/13 Apple's Long Road to Break Eve... More quote details and news » AMZN in
Your Value Your Change Short position who have pushed tablet prices down as far as $229.Apple also said it would offer for free access to its iWork productivity suite, which competes with Microsoft Corp.'s MSFT -1.17% Microsoft Corp. U.S.: Nasdaq [SUP]$[/SUP]34.58 -0.41 -1.17% Oct. 22, 2013 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 39.75M U.S.: Nasdaq [SUP]$[/SUP]34.60 +0.02 +0.06% Oct. 22, 2013 7:55 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 692,791 P/E Ratio 13.30 Market Cap $292.54 Billion Dividend Yield 3.24% Rev. per Employee $784,384 10/22/13 Microsoft Fixes Windows Downlo... 10/22/13 Daniel Loeb's Third Point Buys... 10/22/13 Why Now for Tablets and Phable... More quote details and news » MSFT in
Your Value Your Change Short position Office, and iLife photo, movie and music making apps for customers buying new devices. The company used to charge between $4.99 and $9.99 for each program.
Following the announcements, Apple's Chief Executive Tim Cook said the changes amounted to "the biggest iPad announcement ever, by a large margin."
Improved technical specs, coupled with free software, may help Apple appeal to more customers, particularly students and small businesses, said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. "You're not paying extra money for the brand, you're getting real technology to back it up," he said.
The new iPads and changing software strategy come at a critical time for the Cupertino, Calif., gadget maker. For the first time, Apple sold fewer iPads in the three months ended in June than the same period a year earlier. Rivals including South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. 005930.SE 0.00% Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. S. Korea: KRX [SUP]KRW[/SUP]1455000 0 0.00% Oct. 23, 2013 10:11 am Volume : 28,480 P/E Ratio 7.88 Market Cap KRW237771.83 Billion Dividend Yield 0.07% Rev. per Employee N/A 10/22/13 Why Now for Tablets and Phable... 10/22/13 In the Abu Dhabi Desert, Excit... 10/21/13 HTC's Chairwoman Takes Additio... More quote details and news » 005930.SE in
Your Value Your Change Short position and Amazon are eroding Apple's one-time dominance of the tablet market.[h=4]Tablet Wars[/h]Consumers have a bevy of new and upgraded tablets to choose from to watch movies and television shows, listen to music, read books and more. See how some of the more popular tablets stack up
[h=4]Decoding the Phone-Plan Puzzle[/h]
Select the image to go to the calculator.
Apple introduced two new iPads, the Air and the Mini, to bolster the company's position in an increasingly competitive tablet-computer market. Brian Fitzgerald has details on the News Hub. Photo: Apple.
Research firm Gartner expects Apple's share of the tablet market to fall below 50% this year, down from 54% last year and 65% in 2011. Tablets powered by Google Inc. GOOG +0.37% Google Inc. Cl A U.S.: Nasdaq [SUP]$[/SUP]1007.00 +3.70 +0.37% Oct. 22, 2013 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 2.18M U.S.: Nasdaq [SUP]$[/SUP]1007.70 +0.70 +0.07% Oct. 22, 2013 7:39 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): P/E Ratio 28.52 Market Cap $336.87 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee $1,060,120 10/22/13 EU Plans Panel on How to Tax I... 10/22/13 The Morning Download: Tablets ... 10/20/13 Might Google Have a Sly Motive... More quote details and news » GOOG in
Your Value Your Change Short position 's Android software are expected to hit as much as 50% of the market this year, up from about 45% last year.Nokia Corp. NOK +2.80% Nokia Corp. ADS U.S.: NYSE [SUP]$[/SUP]7.35 +0.20 +2.80% Oct. 22, 2013 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 65.28M U.S.: NYSE [SUP]$[/SUP]7.37 +0.02 +0.27% Oct. 22, 2013 7:57 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap $27.07 Billion Dividend Yield 3.44% Rev. per Employee $355,276 10/22/13 Daniel Loeb's Third Point Buys... More quote details and news » NOK in
Your Value Your Change Short position unveiled its first tablet computer Tuesday. Also Tuesday, Microsoft, which plans to acquire Nokia's mobile-computing business, put the second version of its Surface tablet on sale.Google, Sony Corp. 6758.TO -0.31% Sony Corp. Japan: Tokyo [SUP]¥[/SUP]1929 -6 -0.31% Oct. 23, 2013 10:11 am Volume : 2.22M P/E Ratio 27.48 Market Cap ¥1995.22 Billion Dividend Yield 1.30% Rev. per Employee ¥47,835,800 10/15/13 A Truce in the Videogame Wars 10/13/13 'Gravity' Continues to Pull In... 10/11/13 Sony Eyes Wearables as Real Es... More quote details and news » 6758.TO in
Your Value Your Change Short position and Asian manufacturers including Asustek Computer Inc. 2357.TW -4.01% ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Taiwan [SUP]NT$[/SUP]215.50 -9.00 -4.01% Oct. 23, 2013 9:11 am Volume : 3.62M P/E Ratio 6.93 Market Cap NT$164.10 Billion Dividend Yield 8.90% Rev. per Employee NT$18,073,500 08/09/13 PC Makers's Forecasts Dim as M... 08/07/13 Taiwan Brand Builders Add Holl... 07/25/13 Google Partnership Paying Off ... More quote details and news » 2357.TW in Your Value Your Change Short position and Lenovo Group Ltd. 0992.HK +0.98% Lenovo Group Ltd. Hong Kong [SUP]$[/SUP]8.26 +0.08 +0.98% Oct. 22, 2013 4:01 pm Volume : 31.04M P/E Ratio 16.46 Market Cap $85.02 Billion Dividend Yield 3.39% Rev. per Employee $7,672,870 10/18/13 Canada Likely to Seek Lenovo P... 10/18/13 A Lenovo-BlackBerry Deal Would... 10/18/13 A Lenovo-BlackBerry Deal Would... More quote details and news » 0992.HK in Your Value Your Change Short position are pushing tablets of their own.Apple's answer this year was to fix complaints about its current lineup, adding in its latest processor, the A7, to the new devices, making the iPad lighter and giving the iPad Mini a sharper screen.
An attendee at Apple's event on Tuesday looks at the redesigned Mac Pro computers, due out in December. Getty Images
The iPad Air goes on sale in the U.S. and a host of other countries, including China, on Nov. 1. The new iPad Mini will go on sale later in November, the company said.
"I can't think of another product that's come so far, so fast," Mr. Cook said during the event, noting that Apple has sold more than 170 million iPads.
One bright spot for the company is that even as it loses market share, its customers remain the heaviest users of tablets.
Mobile-advertising firm Chitika Inc. says 84.3% of the website traffic from tablets that it analyzed in June came from iPads. Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet ranked second, with 5.7% of Web traffic, followed by Samsung's Galaxy tablets, with 4.2%. Usage of the iPad increased from May to June, Chitika said, while the others declined.
"Regardless of what you might hear or read about how many are sold or activated, iPad is used more than any of the rest," Mr. Cook said, adding that the iPad is used four times more than competitors.
Among other announcements, Apple said a new version of its computer operating system, OS X Mavericks, along with updates to 20 more of its apps, would be available for existing customers to download free immediately. In the past, Apple has typically charged for major software updates, particularly for its OS X operating system.
With the free software approach, "we are turning the industry on its ear," Mr. Cook said.
Apple also unveiled a slate of new computers. Its latest MacBook Pro laptop computers will start at a price of $1,299, about $200 less than past models, while its high-end Mac Pro desktop computer will start at $2,999.
—Greg Bensinger contributed to this article.
Write to Ian Sherr at [email protected] and Greg Bensinger at [email protected]