Apple launches new Macs and iPads - latest from New York event

Apple is launching a refreshed line-up of Mac computers and iPads in Brooklyn on Tuesday. Follow the latest news pictures as it happens here. This includes the already announced dual sim support with eSims. US singer Lana Del Rey wraps things up. ______________ Tim Cook is back. "Today we're announcing an all new iPad Pro." Cue promo video. Tablet sales are declining, but iPad saw an increase in sales to 44m. It has a 27% market share. Tim introduces Jon Ternus from the iPad division who delivers the details: COST: 11" at $799 for the 64GB version. The 12.9" Pro starts at $999. Unveiled alongside the new iPad is the Apple Pencil. It clips onto the iPad like a magnet. Next up is a segment on Augmented Reality and apps - particularly games in the works - including fresh announcement of Photoshop on the iPad. ______________ Considering it's near Halloween, one could say Apple's smallest and cheapest computer is back from the dead. Tom Boger, head of Mac production marketing comes out to speak for the mini. He describes a massive boost in performance with quad and six-core processors and 64GB of faster memory. Prices start at $799. All Mac minis now use faster flash storage as well with capacities up to 2 terabytes, Applesaid. It also goes on sale today, Apple said. ______________ Tim Cook hands over to Laura Grove who gets us started with replacement for the MacBook Air. The new laptop comes with a 13" Retina display, Touch ID, the latest processors and an even more portable design to the world’s most loved notebook and Thunderbolt 3 ports. The Air, first released in 2010, comes with a Touch ID fingerprint scanner for logging on, a larger trackpad, and better speakers. The new MacBook Air is 10 per cent thinner than the previous model and is a quarter-pound lighter. It has the same 12 hour battery life as the previous model. The Air’s aluminum casing is made from 100 per cent recycled aluminum, Apple said. It goes on sale today. ______________ Apple Chief Tim Cook opens proceedings at the Brooklyn Academy of Music to unveil the latest. He says "we're here today to talk about our most creative products... the Mac." He talks about Apple's market segment and penetration into China. ______________ Apple is expected to unveil updates to its Mac computers and iPads that include facial recognition features that have been available in the iPhone lineup at an event in Brooklyn. Analysts expect a new versions of Apple's iPad Pro, its higher-end tablet computer that competes with the Microsoft Surface, with thinner bezels and more screen space, along with the face unlock system found on Apple's newer iPhones. They also expect updates to the firm's Mac lineup such as redesigned MacBook Air, Apple's $999 entry-level laptop. Apple introduced new iPhones and Apple Watches last month, but the older product lines accounted for $45 billion in sales in the most recent fiscal quarter. In comparison, iPhones brought in revenue of $141.3 billion. "They really wanted to show the world they haven't forgotten about the iPad and the Mac," said Mika Kitagawa, a senior principal research analyst at Gartner. Apple declined to comment. In July when Apple reported its most recent quarter, the company had its worst quarter of Mac sales since 2010, with unit volumes down 13 percent year over year. And iPad unit sales were up only 1 percent versus a year earlier, and revenue for both was down 5 percent from the prior year. But some of that dip in Mac sales was explained by timing - Apple waited to release new Macs until July, when it had in previous years offered them in June. More broadly, Macs sales growth has outpaced the PC market and the iPad has been the most successful tablet in a market that simply turned out to be smaller than Apple hoped when it released the device in 2010. While Apple has held prices down on some items like its entry-level iPads for schools, analyst do not expect it to do so with iPad Pros or Maclaptops. With Mac laptops in particular, consumers increasingly use phones or tablets for quick computing tasks and only reach for a full-fledged computer when they need extra horsepower. Apple is unlikely to cut corners to drop the price of its entry-level laptops, analysts said. "With Apple, 'cheap' is always more expensive than everybody else," said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Creative Strategies. Apple is likely to pick a price where "you don't feel like you're breaking the bank, but you don't feel like you're compromising your experience."

Apple launches new Macs and iPads - latest from New York event

Apple will try to pull laptops and tablets out from under iPhone's shadow