For the technology industry and fruit fans, it has been another sleepless night.
On the evening of May 7th at 10pm Beijing time, Apple's online event with the theme of "Let's Go" was officially held. In less than 40 minutes of press conference, Apple spent a lot of space discussing the significant innovation of the iPad product line. The M4 chip and OLED technology it is equipped with have also become the biggest highlights of this Apple launch event.
After 18 months, can the long silent iPad product line create a sales myth and boost stock prices? It's hard to say, but it's certain that under the wave of generative artificial intelligence and the halo of technology giants such as OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google, Apple's eagerness to enter is particularly urgent.
The thinnest in history
At this Apple press conference, it focused on releasing the new iPad series - iPad Air and iPad Pro. Behind new products, there is often a wealth of technological content gathered.
In terms of price, the new iPad Pro and iPad Air both come in different sizes of 11 inches and 13 inches. The starting price of the iPad Pro is 8999 yuan and 11499 yuan respectively, while the starting price of the iPad Air is 4799 yuan and 6499 yuan respectively.
It is worth mentioning that the flagship product of tablets, the iPad Pro, surprisingly debuted with the M4 chip.
It is reported that the M4 chip still uses TSMC's 3nm process, and compared to the M3 chip, its main upgrade lies in the neural network engine. Its enhancement will improve the speed of machine learning tasks, including video analysis, speech recognition, and image processing.
According to Apple's statement, "the neural network engine has made the M4 chip a super powerful chip capable of performing AI tasks.".
It is understood that based on the audio content, the iPad Pro equipped with the M4 chip has the ability to quickly generate real-time subtitles, recognize objects in videos and photos, and other functions.
In addition, the iPad Pro is equipped with an OLED screen for the first time, providing consumers with more precise brightness and perfect contrast. Industry insiders have analyzed that high pricing is an important factor restricting the increase in OLED penetration rate. However, looking at the external environment, leading manufacturers such as Huawei and Samsung have accelerated their OLED layout.
At this point, the iPad Pro, equipped with an M4 chip and OLED screen, is known by Apple as the lightest and thinnest Apple product to date with a thickness of only 5.1mm.
The Embarrassment of iPad
The iPad product line, represented by the iPad Pro, has finally ushered in a significant technological innovation after an 18 month hiatus.
The latest report released by the third-party platform Canalys shows that due to the recovery of consumer spending and the stable improvement of the global economy, global tablet shipments increased slightly by 1% in the first quarter of 2024, reaching 33.7 million units. In terms of manufacturers, Apple still holds a market share of 36% with a shipment volume of 12 million units, ranking first, but a year-on-year decline of 13.9%; Samsung increased by 1.2% year-on-year, ranking second with a shipment volume of 6.8 million units. In addition, Huawei, Lenovo, Amazon, and others all occupy a place in the global tablet market.
Financial Investment News reporters have noticed that tablets, represented by iPads, are facing a market situation of "left and right pressure". On one side are foldable phones with constantly expanding screen sizes, and on the other side are laptops with constantly shrinking screen sizes, so the awkward iPad is gradually losing the favor of consumers.
Apple CEO Cook commented on the new iPad Pro at a press conference, saying, "The experience is like a Macbook." In fact, in recent years, it has continued to drive the development of its iPad product line by equipping the iPad with Mac level high-performance chips.
Therefore, for Apple, the release of new products is urgent.
On May 2nd local time, Apple released its financial report for the second quarter of the 2024 fiscal year. Data shows that during the reporting period, the company's operating revenue was 90.75 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 4.3%; Net income of 23.64 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 2.2%; IPad revenue was $5.559 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 16.7%.
Journalist's Notes
Apple, no longer "looking at the small mountains"
Today's Apple, despite the halo of a technology giant, is no longer the giant standing on the mountaintop to "see the small mountains".
The attitude of investors is very clear. Apple's stock price closed slightly higher by 0.38% on the day of the press conference, at $182.4 per share. Obviously, the well-known Apple press conference and impressive new products have failed to boost the company's stock price.
At present, Apple's business structure is still mainly focused on selling mobile devices, but the iPhone unexpectedly fell out of the top five in its particularly optimistic Chinese market. On May 6th, market research firm TechInsights released data showing that in the first quarter of 2024, the shipment volume of smartphones in China was 63.3 million units, a year-on-year increase of 1%. Among them, in the ranking of top manufacturers, Apple fell out of the top five with a market share of 13.7%. During the same period, Huawei's shipment volume increased significantly by 118.8% year-on-year, ranking third in market share.
Technology giants such as OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google have already launched their own AI tool platforms to seize the opportunity in the wave of generative artificial intelligence, while Apple's response has been slightly delayed. Therefore, it is reported that in June this year, Apple CEO Cook will elaborate on Apple's artificial intelligence strategy at the annual Global Developers Conference.
Perhaps, "fruit fans" all hope that Apple can achieve a true sense of "self release" and bring a historic innovation that can shake the technology industry ecosystem.