Brand new chip! Apple's big announcement

On the evening of May 7, Beijing time, at a special spring product launch event, Apple launched its new iPad Air and iPad Pro products.

This is also the first time Apple has updated its tablet products in the past two years. Apple CEO Tim Cook said: "This is the most important day for iPad since it launched."

The most noteworthy thing is that in the new iPad Pro, Apple uses a new Apple chip called M4. According to Apple’s statement, “The neural network engine makes M4 a super powerful chip capable of AI tasks.”

After the U.S. stock market opened that day, Apple's stock price opened 1.15% higher, but then its stock price fell back.

At a special spring product launch event on the evening of May 7, Apple released new iPad Air and iPad Pro tablets. The last time Apple released a tablet product was 18 months ago in October 2022.

Apple said that as Apple’s most expensive and most advanced tablet computer, the new iPad Pro will be available in 11-inch and 13-inch sizes. Apple claims this product is the thinnest tablet ever, measuring 5.1 mm thick.

According to release information, Apple’s smaller 11-inch iPad Air starts at $599, and the 13-inch iPad Air starts at $799. The smaller iPad Pro starts at $999, and the larger 13-inch iPad Pro starts at $1,299 with 256GB of storage, a slight increase in price from the previous generation.

It is reported that the iPad Pro will be housed in a new case that Apple calls the "Magic Keyboard", which is made of aluminum and pairs the tablet with a keyboard and trackpad.

Apple says using this protective case will make using an iPad Pro feel "like using a MacBook." The above protective cases are priced at US$249 or US$299 depending on the size.

In addition, Apple also released a new stylus called Apple Pencil Pro, priced at $129.

In fact, the most eye-catching thing about this launch event is that Apple has equipped a new chip called M4 on the new iPad Pro. Apple's laptops currently use M3 chips, while the iPad Air released this time is equipped with M2 chips.

This is also the first appearance of Apple’s M4 chip. It is reported that Apple's M4 chip is based on the second-generation 3nm process, has a new display engine, uses 4 large cores and 6 small cores CPU, and is said to be up to 50% faster than the M2, and supports ray tracing for the first time.

In addition, Apple M4 is also equipped with a 16-core neural network engine, with a computing speed of 38 trillion operations per second, which is 60 times that of the A11 chip. It is reported that the power consumption of Apple's M4 chip is said to be one-quarter of the power consumption of AIPC processors.

According to Apple’s statement, the M4 chip is a very powerful artificial intelligence chip. "The neural network engine makes M4 a super powerful chip capable of AI tasks."

In fact, the market had already expected the launch of this new chip. Industry insiders have previously speculated that the new iPad Pro may skip the M3 and directly be equipped with Apple's new M4 chip.

It is reported that the M4 chip includes a basic version internally codenamed "Donan", a more powerful "Brava", and a high-end version codenamed "Hidra". The new iPad Pro will debut with the basic M4 chip. This chip can currently improve the iPad Pro’s facial recognition and other functions.

Recently, Apple has just released its new fiscal quarter results. The consumer electronics giant has seen a decline in revenue and net profit.

The financial report shows that in the second fiscal quarter ended March 31, Apple’s total revenue was US$90.753 billion, down 4% year-on-year; net profit was US$23.636 billion, down 2% year-on-year. During the reporting period, Apple’s iPad business revenue was US$5.559 billion, a year-on-year decrease of approximately 17%. It has been a double-digit decline for two consecutive quarters.

Therefore, the market is also looking forward to the launch of the new generation of iPad products released by Apple.

Everbright Securities analyst Fu Tianzi reported in a report on May 4 that Apple’s iPad business is expected to recover with the launch of new products, and the company has guided that iPad revenue will achieve double-digit growth year-on-year in the next fiscal quarter.

Everbright Securities also said that after Apple announced that it would stop building cars and focus more resources on AI investment, it is expected to gradually integrate AI capabilities into multiple hardware products such as the new Mac/iPad and the iPhone 16 released in the second half of the year, and is expected to stimulate replacements. Machine demand drives hardware product revenue growth.

It should be noted that the latest report released by market research organization Canalys shows that in the first quarter of 2024, global tablet shipments increased slightly by 1% year-on-year, reaching 33.7 million units. This is also the first time that the global tablet market has achieved year-on-year growth after four consecutive quarters of decline.

However, Apple's iPad shipments fell 13.9% year-on-year to 12 million units in the first quarter, and its market share also dropped to 36% from 41.8% in the same period last year, but it still ranked first.

Ranked second was Samsung, with shipments of 6.8 million units, a slight increase of 1.2% year-on-year, and its market share increased from 20.1% in the same period last year to 20.2%.

Huawei's shipments were 2.735 million units, a year-on-year increase of 70.2%, and its market share increased from 4.8% in the same period last year to 8.1%, ranking third. This is also the second consecutive quarter that Huawei ranks third.

Ranking fourth and fifth are Lenovo and Amazon respectively, with shipments of 2.135 million units and 2.045 million units respectively, a year-on-year increase of 12.9% and a decline of 18.2% respectively, with market shares of 6.3% and 6.1% respectively.